#i will unite all of these fandoms under one roof

[cartoonosaurusrex]

[xx-spookyb-xx]

I fear everything DC pushes about the main continuity bat characters being family makes zero sense to me.

Like, they don’t even back that shit up writing wise. How am I supposed to take it seriously?

There are so many interesting character dynamics that I actually enjoy within the Bat Clan and boiling pretty much all of them down to being important only because “now we’re family” (ie: we’re related now, not we’re like family) or “you’re my brother/sister now” is so fucking boring and not as indicative of the fandom supposedly appreciating “found family” and “untraditional family units/dynamics” as I think y’all think it is.

Y’all don’t give a shit. Just be real about it. If you actually wanted or cared about the existence of “untraditional family units” you wouldn’t force the Bats into the most boring and round about nuclear family dynamics every chance you get.

You’d also respect that not everybody that grew up in the same house considers themselves siblings (blood related or not) and that tons of people can live under the same roof or have the same father (once again biological or otherwise) and not claim each other as siblings even if they’re in contact with one another.

Jason and Tim being automatically considered siblings just because they’re contactually related to Bruce without their explicit say so (like Dick and Tim for example) despite having never met before Jason tried to kill Tim’s skinny ass makes zero sense to me. A sibling tie should be given way more weight than that, especially within an adopted family dynamic. It’s a choice. Dick choosing Tim is important and even more crucial is the fact that he didn’t choose Jason in that same way, and I’m not saying that he didn’t choose Jason at all just that there’s differences. The commitment is different.

Like, the idea that you have to be siblings if you share a parent (one or more) is why so many sibling relationships don’t hold up against adulthood and a lack of forced proximity. If that was actually how humans and emotions worked then they wouldn’t disown and separate themselves from each other now would they?

The sibling thing applies to allll of the Bats by the way. That’s a choice you make and I don’t think it’s as interesting anymore when you take away these characters’ ability to form their own specific connections with others by forcing a relationship dynamic on them automatically just because they all have their own separate connections with one man.

For some of them the sibling dynamic is a really interesting character beat and for others it’s just a box for DC to check off that waters down the connection or feels disingenuous to the characters involved.

[teawithsatanx]

I hate making these kinds of posts. I really do. But I'm scared I'm on the verge of starving and/or homeless.

I have been living with my father for over 8 months at this point and he and I have never had a strong relationship. I'm lucky enough as it is that I am still under his roof and he has been patient, as he so lovingly reminds me at least once a week. I lost my job last month due to things outside of my control and he has never failed to remind me that once I run out of money for my own transportation and groceries that I will be on even thinner ice and possibly homeless. My mother hasn't been much of a support on that regard either, so my hands are tied and I just need to sit down and accept I need help before it's too late.

I pay $150 every two weeks for groceries and my allotted menu that I've stretched to almost 3 weeks at this point will eventually run out by next week. I had to spend the majority of my birthday money on either rideshares to get to and from interviews or my storage unit that holds most of my possessions that have a lot of meaning to me. At this point I am afraid that if I cannot at least feed myself my father will lose patience with the uptick in his own grocery bill.

So, I'm doing the one thing I hate the most and asking for help. I can't draw so I can't offer emergency comms on that end but I do write. Fanfiction and romance exclusively, but that doesn't mean I can't branch out. I have some references to my skill and I have no idea how this would work but. I'm not going to take money without at least giving something in return. I also have some experience writing bios for characters for my own OCs and one for a friend if you would like a long, detailed description for your OC's background in a short-story style.

What I'm thinking is if you have an OC or a pairing that you have an idea for but don't really know how to write it out, I can curate a one-shot for you. These one-shots would be at least 1000+ words, depending. All I'd really need is the Fandom if there is one, the pairing, your idea, a description of your vision, etc. These are pay what you can, and what you feel would be worth the end product.

I'm not even sure this is a good idea or if this is something someone would be interested in but I have to do something at this point instead of sitting here and panicking. Of course there is never any hard feelings to anybody that cannot help. I'm just putting this out there and if nothing comes from it that's okay. I'll come up with something.

Any other way thank y'all for giving me some of your time. Feel free to DM me with anything and we can go from there <3

EDIT: I had a friend of mine very very very generously aid me by giving me enough to at least get my groceries for a week. A huge thank you to her 100000x. I'm still a little short for money on rideshares to and from interviews and hopefully potential first days of work until I get paid but I will not go hungry!

Another huge thank you to everybody sharing this and supporting in any way they can. All of you are near and dear to me even if you're strangers.

[ardentpoop]

your a person who I feel really understands Sam and I always enjoy seeing your opinions on the show so i hope you don’t mind me asking a bit of a specific Sam question. In s8 Sam says that the time is he found with Amelia was something unique that he found for the first time in his life. I’ve always found that line to be a bit weird considering Stanford and Jess but I’d like to see what you think Sam means and is saying by this line. Have a good day.

hi :)

I have mixed feelings on the amelia arc leaning more positive than negative bc I’m a contrarian and I thought the fandom disliked that arc for the wrong reasons lmao - as usual dean’s inescapable perspective aggressively dampened ppl’s ability to empathize w/ sam. also as usual this fandom hates women as much as the show does.

anyway bird’s eye view: sam’s “break” with amelia pre-s8 followed the extremely traumatic events (for sam more than anyone) of s4-s7. he spends literal years dealing w/ one catastrophe after another, his and dean’s relationship suffers its first major breakdown in s4 that imo they never truly recover from, he sacrifices himself to save the world bc it was “his fault” it nearly ended, he suffers an eternity of torture in the cage and loses those memories then regains them then loses them again, nothing feels solid to him least of all his own body and mind. and then dean dies in the s7 finale! or at least, sam thinks he does - he has no reason to believe otherwise. and sam looks for dean, we see that he does, we see him spinning out and suicidal again, but then he stops. bc he hits a dog! and he meets A Girl. and this girl, like him, is drifting and grieving and desperate for something solid to hold onto for just a while. and she’s prickly and unapproachable at first and sam finds that comforting.

my overall point is that sam’s headspace going into stanford era and sam’s headspace pre samndean reunion in s8 are like…. impossibly different. he goes through shit his teen self wouldn’t even have the words to describe. he and dean hit lows that he would’ve never thought possible when they only had each other for comfort under john’s roof.

stanford era sam was blessed with ignorance; he was trying to be Normal, he left his stifling family unit behind and started planning a stable future without them, he was doing everything you’re Supposed to do to be a happy successful person per american individualism - and at the time, it WAS making him happy, bc everyone had kept him in the dark abt the nefarious plot he was smack-dab in the middle of; he didn’t know his freedom was an illusion and that he’d never stopped being watched.

pre-s8 sam on the other hand has long since given up on normalcy. he views himself as a freak who will “never be okay” and hunting as a burden that he deserves to bear. it takes dean being gone for the veil to lift a little and remind him that A) it’s maybe okay that he’s a freak lmao bc amelia’s kind of a freak as well and they can help each other specifically because they’re broken in similar ways, and B) he CAN feel okay when he’s not hunting.

like we know sam’s always hated hunting lol his introduction as a character is centered on this inner conflict. however sam “running away” from “the life” before he knows abt what azazel did to him and before he’s made to shoulder the burden of the apocalypse in s5, among countless other burdens, and sam making an Informed Decision to step back from hunting are 2 entirely different things. to me.

also btw sam turning away from hunting is inextricable from sam turning away from dean, and punished accordingly. bc sam’s Place is at dean’s side whether he likes it or not. he is reminded of this the very instant dean gets back from purgatory and bombarded with guilt abt it for the rest of the season until he cracks.

[veeples]

message received tuesday at 1:41 am

✦ Fandom: The Wayhaven Chronicles

✦ Pairing: Specialist Agent Mason/Faustus Valentine

✦ Word Count: 737

✦ Warnings: Slightly suggestive language. But c'mon.

✦ Notes: 72 hours remain to Book Three. :)

✦✦✦✦✦

Message received Tuesday at 1:41 am.

“Voicemail, huh? Really? I’m a little surprised, to be honest. You’re good at your job, better than what all that sulking lets on. Guess your phone must be dead or something.

[read on ao3]

Well, that’s– That’s good, actually. I’m relieved. This isn’t an emergency or anything. No sewer monster jumping out of the toilet while I’m trying to piss. [laugh] Hey, are sewer monsters real? Fuck, I hope not. It took like three washes to get the stink of stale muck and human waste out of my damn jacket. No way I’m shimmying my ass down a manhole again.

Don’t laugh at that. It’s not even that– [laugh] I can hear the way you would, you know. Even if you barely fucking laugh, I can hear it so clearly in my head. Deep, gravelly. Rough, but never loud. Growling, like distant thunder. It’s nice.”

[pause]

“Okay, so I don’t have a real reason I’m calling you.

It’s late, I really should be sleeping – Jesus, I can’t remember when I’ve had a decent night’s rest. Between the Agency and the music store yanking me around I’m so fucking spent I barely have energy to choke down cold pizza, but I still can’t sleep. Remember that night we spent on the roof? It’s still like that. The nightmares, I mean. Almost every night.

It’s stupid, isn’t it? We caught Murphy. He’s in the Agency’s fucked up little mind prison. I shouldn’t be this piss scared. Months later and still it’s like I’m waiting for something to be waiting for me in the shadows. It’s just…”

[sigh]

“Hard to forget. I guess. Nothing looks the same anymore. Nothing feels the same. The veil’s been lifted, the rose colored glasses are off. The world’s at a permanent tilt.

Sorry. I didn’t mean to get so– whatever. Just a lot of shit crowding up my thoughts.

You know, there must be a leak from the upstairs unit. It’s soaking into my bathroom ceiling. One big, ugly water stain growing in the corner that drips grey water every time Mr. Yu runs water up there. It’s got this dark center, like a rotten, moldy heart. I watch it sometimes when I’m shaving or brushing my teeth. I think I see it grow. It moves like a wave. Like a pulse? Spreading its fingers across the ceiling.

It never drips long enough for me to ever remember to call the office to get it looked at. All I do is kick an old mop bucket under the center to catch the water because the dripping drives me fucking nuts.

Eh, it’s fine. Probably. I’m not too hung up on it. If getting a dirty blood transfusion and having my throat ripped open in a rusty warehouse didn’t kill me, I’m sure a little bit of black mold won’t.”

[pause]

“Fuck it.

I called because it’s been too damn long since I’ve seen you, Mason.

What’s it been, a month? It feels longer than that. I keep thinking– remembering the last time we got to touch each other. The way your eyes look in shadow, hard and sharp, like flint. How you’re a little soft in the stomach.

Carnival, right? Haunted house. Dusty corner, stale smell of popcorn, faint stink of vomit– yeah, you remember. I got a little more than fake ass cobwebs stuck in my hair because you didn’t give me enough warning, asshole.”

[laugh]

“Goddamn. What a mess. Like two stupid teenagers.

You know what I miss? The smell of your cigarettes. They don’t carry them in store. Not any in Wayhaven, at least. I must have gone through all of ‘em. Gas station, grocery store. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Zip. It’s not even a particularly nice smelling cigarette. Little too woody for my taste. Almost burnt. But it’s you.

One day I’m going up to that stupid warehouse. Fuck the Agency. Fuck their paperwork. Fuck the music store too. I miss you. I miss how warm you are under my hands. I miss the scratch of your stubble on my thigh. I miss how sweetly sharp my name sounds in your mouth.

Have you thought of me? I hope you have. I hope you miss the way I say your name too.

See you soon, sunshine.”

End of message. To erase this message, press one. To save this message, press two. To replay this message, press three.

[frauleinandry]

alright, finished my first time playthrough of the third semester... tbh I think there was a lot of really cool concepts introduced, both narrative and gameplay-wise, but it was too short to really utilise either of them to their maximum potential. 

this got fucking long, so I’m slamming it under a cut, and I’ll make a separate post about What I’d Do Differently later

first things first, I thought the choice between maruki’s reality/the real reality would be waaaay more of a moral dilemma than what it was. instead, the whole thing is clearly as creepy as all heck, and the fact that some times bad things can lead to good ones is immediately highlighted by every single one of the thieves. like, unless you’re a huuuuuge akechi fan, I cannot see why anyone would ever choose maruki’s reality. this could be a bit of fandom poisoning leaking through, but I really thought there’d be more conflict behind whether or not it’s moral to reject/accept his reality.

next up, I want to talk about the royal trio - they’re such a huge thing in the fandom, but you only get the akechi/joker/sumire trio for like... ten minutes of gameplay, and akechi/sumire barely interact. in fact, we get tragically little of both akechi and the real sumire in general. 

seeing akechi and the phantoms thieves’ working together civilly was great, but he really didn’t have enough screen time/plot relevance for me to feel particularly saddened with maruki’s revelation on 2/2, especially since I knew it was coming. like, if he’d actually begun to form genuine connections with the non-joker members of the team, it might have actually felt sad, but as-is, it was more of an ‘oh well, that’s a pity’ kinda deal. 

plus, I personally would have enjoyed more antagonist!sumire, as her temporarily siding with maruki was soooo juicy, and it didn’t really feel like her re-joining the phantom thieves made sense until you’d done most of her confidant, which... is entirely optional! 

to compound this, while sumire is a good unit and I used her for most of maruki’s palace, akechi... kind of isnt. his magic is mediocre, and none of his physical skills have crit, and nor does he have native access to charge. tbh while I wanted to use him and sumire for most of the third semester content, I found a joker/sumire/haru/makoto team far more useful for generic shadows, and joker/ann/ryuji/makoto for the bosses.

speaking of another gameplay thing that should have been cool in theory, but was a bit average in execution, were the third awakenings. honestly, I love the narratives behind them, especially with the persona 4 homage, and the busted skills you get are reeeeeally fun in theory, but... there just isn’t enough gameplay left to really utilise them!! like, you either toggle between unlocking them and sumire’s confidant, and hope you’ve done it in the right order so you can get all of them before clearing the new mementos level/maruki’s palace, oooooor you clear that stuff first, and then only have the final boss/challenge battles to use them in. ugh!

while there’s been a lot of crit so far, I will say that I thought maruki’s palace, and maruki in general were excellent. the palace managed to hit the nail between dystopic and utopic perfectly, for a delightfully unsettling effect. I thought the exam section and the twilight corridor were both fantastic - the former for what it said about maruki’s character (i mean... YIKES), and the latter for its visuals/music/vibe in general. also, the video tapes revealing maruki’s backstory were great - seriously, all this time, I thought the palaces needed something like it, and now that we’ve actually got it, it was just as good as I expected. 

speaking not of his palace but him in general, unlike sumire, I thought maruki was woven into the narrative in general really well. his introduction to the story felt natural, and I looooooove how it was joker’s fault he figured out how to usurp reality to begin with. not to mention, fist-fighting your therapist on the roof is just... such a peak final battle. I love it.

[simp-writer]

𝚂𝚊𝚟𝚒𝚘𝚛 𝚘𝚏 𝚊 𝙸𝚕𝚕𝚞𝚜𝚒𝚘𝚗'𝚜 𝚠𝚎𝚊𝚔𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚜

A/N: I based this whole thing off a prompt given by the Writing Prompts acc [the post] and I went with my own take on it. Probs a crack fic but who knows! Anyways it is 5.5k words. One-shot stuff I think. Anyways my first time writing for something that isn't a fandom so it is a bit messy! Anyways hope you enjoy. Banner from @/uuchiihaa

The biggest and baddest villain of your city, The Illusionist, was fighting against my boss. Nightbolt was his hero name. He is an asshole but at least he does his job. His super power allows him to draw energy from any source of light but he has a dark shadow to him as he is absorbing all the light around him. The Illusionist makes illusions as his name states. He is ranked as S-Class and has a spot on the Hero's Most Wanted List. I've never had a chance to face him before, I thank the Gods everyday for this, because I am a rookie. My superpower allows me to see the world as a grid and spot weak points. A subpower of it is that it can show me how to pick locks or disarm traps in a sort of tutorial type way. Hard to explain but useless as of now. I've only been able to use this power to test security of important buildings and I am under so many NDAs that it could rival the Constitution.

I am hiding behind some broken walls from a ruined building, which was ruined before my boss decided to fry the electrical unit and throw a part of it at the Illusionist. I frankly don't know why my boss is always trying to fight him. There are other heroes with more suitable powers to fight him. I look around the ruined area doing minor things like connecting a battery to the electrical unit to help my boss out and using my super strength (a given to anyone with superpowers but we are just stronger than the average human but much weaker compared to those whose superpower is Super Human) to help trapped people get to safety. I kinda have to stay near my boss to make sure he doesn't run out of electric volts to use against the villain. I look up at them fighting on the rooftop with the Illusionist having like sixteen different versions of himself fighting against Nightbolt. I let out a sigh as I climbed up some ruined stairs to get back to where I connected the battery. The battery is buzzing away and is at thirty percent. I let out a sigh as I walked around the building to find a tool closet which hopefully has a spare battery. I only carry two and knowing my boss, it won't be enough as he enjoys dragging these battles on for some reason. With other villains, he finished the fight as fast as possible.

The building has so many holes in it. There are several walls which have human-shaped holes in them. I hear a crunch under my foot as I take a step back. It is a silver locket. I let out a hiss as I wonder if I just destroyed someone's property. I only pray it will be simple to fix and I don't end up ruining someone's gift. It always sucks when this happens because it usually gets written off as collateral damage but I've seen people cry hard over it as the heroes end up destroying a gift they had prepared for someone which was a one-of-a-kind or destroying a gift from a dead person. I open the silver locket infront of me so the glass pieces fall out of it. I turn the locket so it faces down and give it some taps on the back so the rest of the glass falls out. I turn it to myself so I can see what is inside of it. There is a comically timed explosion on the roof as my eyes go wide. It is a picture of the Illusionist, in his civilian form I think, with a woman and it seems to be their wedding day?! I only connect the pieces because the scar on the Illusionist's face matches with the one on this wedding photo, but I could be wrong. I feel a shiver go up my spine as I think about the fact it could actually be the Illusionist. I quickly close the locket and put it in my pocket as I hear Nightbolt yell for me. I nearly trip over a very exposed wire while running up. Nightbolt is fuming a bit as he takes off his mask and crosses his arms like a pouty child. "The Illusionist ran away after something on his belt started ringing. He didn't even bother with me as he made his illusions explode into gas and he escaped!" Nightbolt is crumbling while kicking some pieces of the ruined building like an upset child. I just sigh as I call HQ to inform them that Nightbolt failed in capturing the Illusionist again and is fuming. I hear the receptionist let out a sigh as she says she'll inform the big boss about this.

At a mountaintop days later

Honestly, there are times where I wish my parents were more hard pressed on making me go on with my career as a engineer. Then I wouldn’t have to deal with all this. Being at another villain’s hideout on a mountain during the fall. I shiver as I walk around the area trying to scout out the location. Nightbolt is currently with another hero being briefed about the mission. It is likely that he is just goofing off and the other hero will have to try and keep him from destroying the base once again before we get all the proof and weapons out of it. I sit down on the ground as I see the sun rise. I pull the small cart I grabbed beforehand to carry the batteries. I hop in it as I slide down the hill and hit the base’s wall. I hop out as I hear explosions already. I use my power to find a weakpoint and hit it as hard as I can. It crumbles down after a couple hits and I walk in. I pull the cart behind me as I look around for the circuit breaker. I have to open a couple doors to find it. I pull the cart into the room as I feel the building shake like we are dealing with four earthquakes at once. I hear Nightbolt shout to the villain, “Get back here you * so I can wipe that smug look off your face!” With a long string of curses following it. I mentally thank Saber for creating these earplugs that censor cursing. If they didn’t, I’d end up hearing a ton of words that gotNightbolt canceled. Plus I’d rather not hear his insults while I am over here tearing wiring out from the walls and tying them together.

“Nightbolt! I got it set up!” I shout with my hands around my mouth to make my voice louder. Nightbolt jumps from a tower and grabs the bundle of wires from the floor. I bolt back to the circuit breaker and refocus all the power to those wires. Nightbolt’s power needs a constant source of electricity. However, if he gets a large amount of it that can overload any high-tech circuit breaker, he gets a major power boost. Which is why I carry heavy batteries around. I see blue sparks of electricity in the air as I feel my hairs stand on end. I plug both batteries into the circuit breaker. The second version of it is to overload Nightbolt himself with electricity. A more dangerous move as he could die from it, but it is something he has done often so I assume he got used to it. To be fair, the villain they are fighting has a shield power and this state lets Nightbolt break through nearly any shield. Still don’t get why he doesn’t use the first state of overload to wrap up his fight with the Illusionist but boss’s orders are orders I guess. I hear a massive explosion as I run out of the room. The circuit breaker is broken and I don’t have any other reason to stay here. I walk out a side door and get picked up by Starbright, a hero with wings. Her power allows her to have as many sets of wings as she can handle coming from her back (with size varying) and to control the feathers from said wings as long as they are in a certain radius around her. She picks me up by my arms and flies me back to the mountaintop. We hear massive explosions behind us as my walkie is ringing off the walker with strings of curses from Nightbolt is sometimes heard from it. All of us ontop of the hill, mostly the sidekicks and support heroes, watch as we see blue lighting go through the sky with a glimpse of the villain, Termite, they were fighting. It is a weird villain name so that’s funny at least.

Everyone jumps back to make way while opening up the sliding door as Termite is thrown our way and slides infront of the support heroes. They quickly tie him up with some power canceling rope. Nightbolt follows a moment later as he lands on the balcony while stumbling. I rush to his side as I help him inside and down to the medbay. He looks frankly awful. His suit is torn with a ton of wounds on him plus his mask is falling off slightly. The nurse bandages him up with the warning of “Not letting the stupid boy overload again. His nerves are all freaking out and it will take one more overload to fuck them all up again. He shouldn’t use overload for a couple months to at least give his nerves a chance to return to normal. He has nearly fried all of the nerves in his body.” I nod as the nurse leaves. I kinda can’t leave when my boss is in the medical bay so I just sit on a chair and open one of the many many medical books in the bay. I will likely never need this information about how different gases and herb mixes affect the body, but knowledge is knowledge nonetheless. Plus it is an easy way to pass the time.

It takes about four hours before Nightbolt wakes up. Just in time for one of the bosses to walk in. I closed the book as I just finished the herb section and was just about to get to the gas section, maybe I’ll read it another time. I put it back on the shelf as I hand my walkie back to the boss along with the report the nurse left on Nightbolt, who is sitting up with little struggle. I repeat the nurse’s words to Nightbolt. “Gah. Why does everyone want to stop me from having some fun!? It is not that serious.” He grumbles while the boss looks unimpressed. I stand to the side as the boss clears his throat. “As advised by a medical professional, I hearby suspend you from participating on any more missions. At least until a medical professional says it is safe for you to return to the field.” Nightbolt opens his mouth to rebuttal but then his mother walks in. “Nathan Alan Jones, what were you thinking about using maximum overload when you were just advised to avoid using overload?! The other hero could have taken down Termite instead of you nearly frying all your nerves again!” She says as she stands infront of him.

Looking at her, she pretty much gives stereotypical rich mom vibes. She’s just an older female version of Nathan. I avoid making eye contact with Nightbolt who looks at me for help, which I was not gonna offer. Ain’t trying to get the mother’s rage focused on me. The boss also stands to the side as Nathan gets scolded. He tries to speak up a few times but his mother pulls his ear to get him to listen and behave. I am soooooo telling this to my bestie after she gets home. After Nathan’s mom leaves, he looks like a sad puppy with how he looks at me and the boss. “This is your punishment. I better not hear news from the other heroes, staff, or even the reporters about you being out and about. Your father already knows about this and your grandfather made this order as well.” The boss says. Nightbolt’s grandfather made the Hero’s Agency which is why Nightbolt gets away with a lot of this but his father didn’t inherit any strong powers which is why he works as a civilian with Nightbolt’s mom who is just a normal person. “But, I didn’t go overboard-” Nathan starts to say before the boss says, “You destroyed half of Termite’s base while nearly setting off multiple bombs which could have caused a landslide to happen as we are on a mountain which is known to cause landslides to the city.” Nightbolt lets out a childish whine before laying back down on the medical bay and turning his back to us both. “You are also unable to join any missions.” He says to me while sighing. “You’ll be paid the Agency’s minimum wage as an apology.” He hands me a paper which is signed by the boss’s boss. “Until then, stay safe. I hope Nightbolt stops being such a child.” He grumbles within earshot of Nightbolt who shuffles around on the bed. I nod my head and leave the room. At least I’ll have time to do other things.

Weeks later

I am walking around town to buy some groceries and bandages. Nightbolt is still healing up. I have the locket hanging from my hand as I enter a repair shop for jewelry. I explain in loose terms that a friend broke their locket and would like the glass replaced. I looked around the shop as the woman said it would take about an hour but luckily she got some fresh glass to cut so it wouldn't be too long. I ended up just sitting on one of the couches as I scroll through news channels on my phone. Normal news about heroes capturing villains, some news about rising attacks from certain villains, costs of food going down, more job openings to help the heroes out, and more. Mid and chill stuff for a rookie hero to know about. I thanked the shop owner and paid some extra for her cleaning it. I walk out of the shop and bump into someone. I stumble backwards against a wall which makes me do a double take. I blink rapidly as I look around me to see I am somewhere else entirely. I turn to look at who I bumped into and my soul leaves my body for a second. It is the Illusionist. I blink a couple times before I hear him speak. "Please help me recuse my wife." He sounds nothing like I heard him before. I hand him the locket and mumble a sorry for taking it. I stare at him as he speaks once more, "I already asked or tried to ask the heroes about it. But they won't listen and thought it was a trick or something along those lines." To be fair, I wouldn't trust him either as he is known for making illusions. "I hope you'll help me out as you've seen the picture inside the locket. Another villain took her while I was fighting Nightbolt weeks ago. I’ve been unable to get her back as Red Heart has kept her in a place I can’t unlock nor break into.." The Illusionist looked at me and he looked more like a pleading child rather than the villain who brought panic to the city. I take a couple deep breaths as I try to figure this out. On how he knew I had the locket, I'll ask that later. Likely he had a tracker in it or put a spell on it. Unlikely was that he was stalking me after seeing he lost the locket when he was fighting Nightbolt.

"I'll help." I end up saying after several painful and long minutes of silence. The Illusionist smiles before snapping his fingers. I look around to see I am in a whole new and fancier apartment. The Illusionist says, "I brought you here so you can help me plan out how to get her back. Unfortunately my powers don't go well with Red Heart's power. I can't risk running in without a plan as I believe he is planning to use my wife as bait to trap me in something." He brings me over to a table and explains what he already knows about Red Heart. Red Heart is a A-Class villain on the verge of being classed as S-Class. His power allows him to control and summon fire for as long as he is rageful. He got named Red Heart for some reason. It is just one of those villain name mysteries. I look at the blueprint he stole which shows Red Castle's base layout. He begins pacing around the room, still in his super villain outfit, while mumbling about ways to break into his base. I stare at the blueprints while using my power. It is much harder to find weakness from a blueprint and not looking at the building itself but it will do nonetheless. I grabbed a red pen and circled two entrances of which I think will be our best shot at entering the base undetected. "I think I have a plan but it is just as dangerous as entering through the front door." I say to the Illusionist. He looks at the red circles as I explain how they were built from the blueprints with weak defenses. "We can enter through there but there is also the risk they updated their defenses since this blueprint was made. I can make a better judgement once we get there." I say while pointing at certain parts of the blueprint which can also work as entrances but are likely much harder to stay hidden with how strangely the place is built.

At ????

I was not expecting my Tuesday to be spent walking in a dimly lit hallway with a villain. He seems locked in as the kids say. I mentally punch myself as it makes me sound older than I am. I look down the splitting pathway which each side leads to one of the red circled entrances. I touch the wall causing the path to split as I use my powers. I grit my teeth as this was one of the few times I used my powers in an unnatural way. I pointed left and said "The defenses there are worn down." I walked with the torch lighting out as the Illusionist was grumbling about his fancy cape, which was made by his wife from what I could get from his words, and was singed by fire from some of the heroes. I put out the torch by holding it against the damp ground. We climbed up a ladder as we were in an empty dining room. The Illusionist used his magic to keep us hidden as he walked around the first floor of the base. I waved him over to some stairs as I used my power, with less force, to see where Red Heart and his minions were located. "Red Heart is on this floor but his minions are guarding something on the fifth floor. I can vaguely sense a person there but it is likely there are some powerblocking things in place." I say as we are reaching the third floor. The illusionist takes off his cape and ties it around me, as one would tie a blanket around a cold child. "Go get my wife. I'll fight that bastard." He says while grabbing some swords from a nearby weapon rack. I stare at him as I wonder what to say. I just nod my head as I take a sword he handed me. I only wonder what my bosses would think if they found out I was helping a villain instead of reporting him to HQ.

I reach the fifth floor and take a moment to catch my breath. There were so many more steps since the third floor as if someone was purposely trying to tire them out. I walk towards the cell as the guards, more so minions, are talking about what they will have for dinner. They don't even turn to look in my direction. Likely from whatever magic the Illusionist put on the cape or me. I unsheathe the sword as I slice through two of the minion's necks. The blood gets on the cape, my shirt, and face slightly. I quickly stab the sword into the third minion's chest and make sure they are all actually dead. I am still paranoid from the encounter with a villain who could bring back the dead. Luckily Starspear took care of them but that was the only time I could actually see Nightbolt as a normal person. I place my hand on the metal door to use my powers. I let out a yelp of pain as I quickly pull back my hand. I look at my hand to see it having been slightly burnt. I look at the door and see my handprint there. So the door burns whoever uses a superpower while touching it? I choose to test this theory by placing my hand on the wall and not touching any metal part as I use my powers once more. It didn't burn but I can see a void in the shape of a cube inside the wall. I at first try to check the minions for any keys. I find some but none of them unlock it. I then use one of their weapons to break the lock on it. All either bounce off it or break the weapon. I wrap my hand in the shirt of the dead minions and try it again. I could vaguely sense the outline of the cube but I pulled my hand away again as I smelled smoke. I saw the shirt got burned all the way through with my hand being burned slightly more. I grab a nearby wire as I hold the lock. I take a deep breath as I use my superpower's subpower to help me unlock it. I can feel the lock being burned into my hand as I pick the lock. Once I hear the sound of the lock opening, I quickly pull the lock away from the door before letting some tears fall down my face. I grabbed some numbing cream and rubbed it into my palm. I wrap some bandages around it. I take a moment to catch my breath as I open the door with my other hand. I see the Illusionist's wife. I use a dead body to keep the door open as I walk over to her. She looks fine but she seems to be knocked out. I picked up her up bridal style with some struggle. I try to avoid putting too much pressure on my burned hand but nonetheless I start to walk down all the steps.

I see some of the stairs got broken so I have to go down the other set of stairs. Using my powers to see what has happened while I was saving his wife. I can see multiple rooms being destroyed and one that is actively being destroyed. I stumble over a loose brick and land on my back with the Illusionist wife on me. I struggle to stand back up as my hand is actively bleeding now. I lean the wife against the wall as I rebandage my hand. I look back at her to see her slowly coming to. She stares at me but I start to rapidly explain how I was here to help her husband save her and asking if she is okay. She nods slowly before standing up. "Where…where is Adrian..?" She asks slowly as she looks around the floor. Note to self, unremember the Illusionist name. "He is fighting Red Heart. Come on. I've gotta get you out of here." I say while picking her up once more and holding back my cry of pain as my hand is feeling like it is on fire, which is ironic. I go back down the stairs as she introduces herself through mumbles as Jasmine. We just get down to the second floor when I have to speed up going down the stairs as I see Red Heart and Adrian fight each other in the living room area of the second floor, which is a living room type area. I ran down the steps fast as I noticed Red Heart was looking at us. I stumble at the last step before I break into a full on sprint.

I am running out in the middle of nowhere far from the city. I heard the sounds of someone chasing us and having to dodge things being thrown at me while being sure Jasmine doesn't get hit by anything, I don't wanna get on the Illusionist bad side if I can avoid it. I notice there is a forest about 500 feet away as I keep on running. "Get back here! Don't think you can run so far little Illusion!" I hear Red Heart scream as I notice there are about six other me's running with me. I just refocus my attention on running. One of my me's disappears after Red Heart threw a fucking big ass chuck of his base. I make it to the forest just in time to hear the sounds of some other heroes ordering for Red Heart to stand down. I just keep running into the forest as I hear the explosions of colliding attacks behind me. I hid behind one of the bigger trees to catch my breath. I set Jasmine down as she fell asleep somehow during the attack. I lean against the tree trying to catch my breath as my arms and legs are burning. I've done a lot of physical stuff since being a rookie hero under Nightbolt but this was far more than what I was use to. "Thank you for your help." I hear a male voice behind me. I lift and turn my head to see Adrian standing there. I give him a weak thumbs up before going back to trying to catch my breath. Adrian gently shakes his wife awake as he hugs him. I just wonder if they gave her a high dose of some calming agent and it is still in her system. That's my only explanation. Jasmine sounds happy as she says, “Honey…..I had a interesting nap. The kid carried me down stairs of clouds and ran all the way here! Such a sweet child.” She chuckles as she reaches out towards me. I kneel as she ruffles my hair. “Silly child!” She giggles before mumbling about having to bake a cake for her anniversary. Adrian lets out a sigh as he looks at me. “He likely had gas put into the room after he left to keep her calm as to avoid letting anyone know her location from her shouting or anything. Could also be a type of gas to cause hallucinations. Best let her breathe fresh air and wait a while until it wears off.” I say while rubbing the back of my neck nervously.

In a Living room

I was infact not expecting to be in a villain’s home, let along willingly being there. I am sitting with Jasmine on an open balcony as she is telling me stories about the myths from her hometowns. The gas has likely gone all out of her system but it seems she is still seeing hallucinations to some degree as she is telling me about animals and creatures that aren’t there or wherever she is pointing. Adrian walks over with some grapes and tea. He sets them down on a table as Jasmine happily takes the tea from him. She keeps on talking about her hometown as I snack on the grapes Adrian brought. They could be laced with something but that is an issue for later. I am starving. I doubt he would lace them anyways after I helped him save his wife. I only hope my (very little) trust in him won’t be in vain. Adrian lets out a sigh as his wife finishes her tea and goes to the kitchen to wash it. “Thank you for helping me.” He starts. “I literally couldn’t have done it without you. I probably could have in a couple weeks but I doubt Red Heart would willingly give me that much time. Without your help, I would still be panicking about my wife’s safety.” I nod feeling a tad awkward as I only helped out at the start because of a innocent person being in danger. She could have perhaps not known about Adrian being the Illusionist so that helped me out in my choice to help him out. “You could have probably betrayed me or used my wife against me to get me to turn myself in. Thank you for not doing that.” He lets out a sigh as Jasmine comes back with cookies. “Have some cookies.” She says while pinching my cheek as a grandma would do to her grandkid. “It was no problem.” I say while rubbing my cheek while grabbing a cookie. “You seemed pretty in need of help and it would likely haunt me knowing I could have endangered someone’s life by ignoring your request.” Adrian pats me on my back. “You’re a good kid. Let’s just hope I don’t have to go against you in the future.” I nod as Adrian grabs a cookie himself. Jasmine looks at us. “Are you guys also apart of a gaming club?” Adrian and I freeze. “Yeah. We are apart of opposing guids in the club. It is a friendly competition between club members.” I frantically explain with Adrian nodding after I finish speaking. Jasmine smiles before saying “Do you have any up and coming meetings or competitions?” I look at Adrian who just gives a thumbs up. Jasmine nods and says “We are going to have dinner. Do you want to stay? Oh what is your name?” I clear my throat as I say “My name is but I am fine with whatever.” I rub my neck nervously as I stand up. “I’ve gotta head home though. Thanks for the offer. See you next week at club Adrian!” I say while walking out of the house and waving bye.

In office

I am bouncing my leg up and down as I am finally letting the weekend sink in. First, I helped the Illusionist save his wife. Second, I know both of their names and where they live. Third, the Illusionist knows my name. And fourth, he keeps sending me Gen-X memes and gaming memes. I run my hands through my head as I try to figure out when he got my phone number. “Gift for . From your game club member.” I hear someone say behind me. I nearly jump out of my seat as I turn around to see one of my fellow rookie heroes. They are holding a pretty massive gift box as they set it down on my desk with a thud. I blink a few times as my co-worker leaves. I just stare at the box as I notice a sticker on the side. “From Jasmine & Adrian.” I bang my head on the desk a couple times. I just keep my head on the desk after a moment, turning it slightly to the side to look at the box. After a while, I lift my head up as I rub the red mark on it. I open up the box to see a new gaming console. I dig through the box to figure out it is one of the newer ones that got released a month or so ago. I closed the box and placed it under my desk for now.

Nightbolt had escaped the medical bay yesterday and got caught on his way out so now his time there has increased. I still have paperwork to do as HQ still needed me to fill in and check reports on the incident with Termite. I let out a sigh as I looked back at my computer to read my twenty-fourth report of the day. Everyone there had to give one. I just hope the gifts don’t come again. I can handle small thanks but not something worth like thousands of dollars. Hell I feel like I want the ground to open up and swallow me whole. I don’t even know how I will be during the fights Nightbolt will eventually have with the Illusionist. I let out another sigh as many scenarios run through my mind. I wasn’t expecting this outcome and I don’t think it is that unwelcomed? Who knows anyways. That is a problem for tomorrow me to figure out and today me has to finish reading these reports.

[sunshine-in-a-bottle]

Regarding the uptick in drunz positive content each time theirs a neg analysis- honestly, part of this feels like an example of Tumblrs golden rule: don't like? Block.

If a person's analysis is distressing to you, and you know it's always going to be, remove it from your sight line. Stop engaging with stuff that's going to distress you. I'm so serious. Dreblr is a wonderful community I love- and I also block people who's content I know will make me feel bad. It's not personal. It's never personal. We can all be united in loving cDream and also staying in our own lanes regarding how we love him.

If you *have* to follow or engage with people you know are going to post content that upsets you, limit your interactions. You don't need to be passive aggressive and vague post your disagreement/dislike of a take. You don't even need to know the details, you can just not read the post if you know it's going to be a negative experience for you.

I get that meta and analysis culture often relies on loreheads interacting to agree or disagree or engage in what can be a fun debate, and I'm not saying we should shut out the world every time it doesn't align with you, but at the end of the day, fandom isn't our jobs. We all have real world responsibilities and lives we have to live. Fandom is a hobby we're meant to enjoy, and you shouldn't be feeding the parts of it that are making you stressed; you have plenty of time to be stressed struggling with employers and medical stuff and money.

Also just- don't be a dick to people, and don't be a dick about the things they enjoy. You can hate a ship- I sure do- but at some point the complaining about a ship stops being an interesting conversation and instead just makes you look and feel absolutely miserable. I totally get being upset at a fandom wide preference, but you're not going to change that preference. An analysis post shouldn't be made to try to fight an entire fandom about their opinions. It's for you! To make *you* happy! To feel good about putting in that work and effort to explain a stance.

Separating analysis and AU is good, telling people they're invited into the space is great- but curate your experience, dammit. We're all in this together. Separately. In our own little rooms under one roof. I shouldn't get up to use the bathroom and come back to find a warzone.

a little ramble about dreblr, meta, and the ever evolving nature of this fandom, i guess?

i don't mean to soapbox, this is mostly just going to be vomiting some thoughts into a post. some recent stuff and a post or two have had me thinking about this fandom and how different it is from when dsmp was ongoing. it's,, pretty obvious that the fandom is quite a bit smaller and less active than that time, and there are generally a lot fewer people actively posting meta and such every day--which isn't necessarily a bad thing, and is natural obviously considering that the dsmp ended almost 2 years ago, but does mean that the culture around (?) meta and such has shifted, as well. it's one of those things too i think that is felt so much more obviously in dreblr, which is an even smaller group within this fandom that formed in response to uhhh being very much considered unwelcome by the greater fandom at the time.

that being said, as is the nature of all fandom, dreblr is still a community of people who are largely strangers who have gathered together because of one commonality: very strong feelings and often very strong opinions on the dream smp and c!dream. and i think when the fandom was more active, the entire fandom felt a lot more like a "pvp enabled" zone, lmao -- it was every other day when there'd be some new batshit meta about c!dream or some stream to react to and analyze and fight people about and whatever. since then, though, with the dsmp gone, the fandom has become quieter -- which i think has allowed some of the variation in opinions within dreblr become more and more obvious? and also become a sort of source of friction.

again, this is normal for any fandom. i'm certainly not here to agree with everyone about c!dream always, lmao. but the vagueing of takes is always more awkward on both sides when it's someone where you share more of the same circles. at the end of the day, it's up to each individual blogger's discretion to choose what they will or won't post on their own blog, but at the same time ... when it comes to the community, just speaking for myself, i don't want a super high barrier of entry when it comes to people feeling like they can't join this fandom unless they've got [xyz] experience or [xyz] takes.

when it comes to actual analysis of the source material, though, keeping meta a safe place for people to say "no, i don't agree with this take because of [xyz]" is important as well, which always raises the question of how said disagreements should be handled. and again, i'm no authority, i'm not here to tell people what to do. personally, when it comes to my own blog, i don't like to post very much directly about any one blogger, but I know I've definitely written posts inspired by specific takes before as well as screenshots of takes from the fandom's heyday, etc. i don't necessarily feel uncomfortable with this ...? but at the same time, i know that vagueposts can be a source of discomfort, especially if they're about your take in particular (speaking from experience) -- so it's you know. not the easiest line to draw, I guess, especially when we're talking about a community where different people are going to have different levels of comfort with what they post on their own blogs and what other blogs do in response to their takes. and whatever.

vagueposting, i think, has been common in the tumblr dsmp fandom for a long time, and especially in dreblr -- direct engagement in the past errr usually went badly, so a habit formed of keeping everything we did kind of within our own spaces (hence why many of us don't even tag c!dream or even dreblr on most of our posts; keeping everything untagged, or keeping the tagging system restricted to our own blogs, limited the possibility of trouble). that being said, vagueing within dreblr has become more common, i think, as disagreements within dreblr have become more and more obvious in the time since the dsmp ended. (just for the obvious example: i think it's a bit of an open secret that i, personally, strongly disagree with much of the common depictions of c!drunz in this fandom. i've written some meta about this before, as well as some responses to meta--which i enjoyed greatly, believe me--but i've also noticed (perhaps coincidence) an uptick in c!drunz positive meta every time i or someone else makes a post that maybe skews more negative. which is normal, don't get me wrong, but also a pattern i've noticed. i'm also very aware that someone the arguments i may bring up as counterarguments or structure my posts around arguing against are based on actual arguments i've seen while in this space, which i'm aware is an easy source of friction within dreblr.) and it's easy to say "don't take it personally when it's just metaanalysis," but that's easier said than done, lmao, especially depending on the tone of the vaguepost and a myriad of other factors.

i'm not saying that i have the answers. or, for that matter, a single answer. the boundaries i set aren't going to be the same as the boundaries other people set, for one, and i have no desire to police what other people do on their own blogs. i do miss, sometimes, the more collaborative and discussion-based meta experience of this fandom when it was more active--i might try to more actively reblog posts (including those i don't necessarily agree with) to discuss this server and these characters, bc at the end of the day that is kind of why we're here. personally, i've always drawn a pretty sharp distinction between fanwork and analysis -- i think it's pretty bad form to criticize people's AUs In General (not that i've not. been guilty of it in the past, but i try at least to keep it to criticizing more general patterns within fanwork; look, i'm not going to claim a moral high ground, i love bitching way too much and should probably get a handle on that but asj;lkfdsaf) but when we're talking meta about the source material, barring shit like. you know, harassment and otherwise abusive behavior, i do consider it more of a free-for-all. at the same time, i know that these standards can lead to newer fans feeling like they're going to be booed out the door for sharing their thoughts, which, i mean, isn't great 😭😭😭 fresh eyes can bring a lot of really cool new insights, and it'd suck pretty damn bad to miss that because they don't feel welcome, yknow?

anyway, this is a very inconclusive post, but i thought i'd just throw some of my thoughts out as someone who has been here for a decently long time. and if you want to discuss w/ me, inbox and dms are always open :)

[adri-2022]

Again!

Fandom: Chicago PD

Characters: Jay Halstead x FemReader/ Will Halstead/ Hailey Upton

Warning: swearing/ some comedy?

Word count: 945

Jay Halstead Materlist

A/N: Hey beautiful people! Here is an original imagine. I hope everyone is staying safe and you guys enjoy.

Don't be afraid to leave your comment!

--------

You almost had a heart attack when you got the call from your boyfriends brother, that Jay “dumbass” Halstead had gotten shot, again. Couldn’t he be more careless, always putting everyone’s safety before his, and quite frankly you wanted to punch him in his beautiful face, so now on your way to Med you were thinking of all the ways you could get away with murder.

“You called Y/N?” Jay exclaimed to his brother looking at him like if he had grown two heads. “Yeah... I did. She deserves to know Jay” Will looked at his brother with an unamused expression.

“What? You scared?” Will bit back a smile that was fighting to surface in his face at the worried look on Jay’s face. Jay scoffed “Me scared -of Y/N... puff no- she doesn’t make me nervous or scared. Okay? I’m the one who wears the pants in the relationship” Jay said trying to convinced his brother or himself -because, yeah, he didn’t wear the pants in the relationship you did-.

Just when Will was about to torture his brother a little more, they heard your voice from the other side of the ED, “WHERE IS HE?” And just like that Jay was proved a liar, as Will noticed how his heart monitor when trough the roof.

“I hope you enjoyed your time with me, cause I’m pretty sure I’ll get murder in my sleep tonight…” “If not now” Will responded laughing at the expense of his brothers fear.

If there was something that could scare Jay was number one -hospitals- and two -you-, and now he was had both. Yes, he wasn’t scared of getting shot or tortured because you- you were very, very scary when angry. Which made everyone you knew joke about how a 5’10 former ranger and detective of one of the most feared units in Chicago, could be scared of a 5’3 law receptionist. And it was about to be proven again when Jay heard Maggie giving you his room number and your high heels clicking in his direction. Just then the door opened,

“What. The. Actual. Fuck Jay Grayson Halstead!” “fuck…” he muttered under his breath, looking at his lap trying to not show you he was worried or in pain.

“Did she really say…” “Shut up, shh, shut up” Jay cut his brother who was trying so hard not to laugh at his brother, because only Will knew Jay’s second name -he didn’t like it, you thought it was cute-.

“Will” “Y/N” “There’s the door” you said pointing to the door of Jay’s treatment room, to which Will looked at Jay wide eyes before moving towards the door, while Jay shook his head wide eyes pleading to Will not to leave him alone.

You were now looking at him, furious expression, arms crossed in your chest, raised eyebrow waiting for him to say something,

“Babe…I love you; did I tell you how beautiful you look today?” “Don’t- don’t even think about trying to smooth talk me…You got shot, AGAIN?!” you were pretty sure that the city could hear you,

“Honey, I’m okay, I promise. Its just a graze nothing major” “Just a graze?” he nodded giving you a small weary smile.

“Where is it?” you asked with a sweet voice and worried expression, to which Jay pointed to his right shoulder. You got close to his side not breaking eye contact, before you smack the injury,

“OWW, fuck, babe why did you do that?” he said groaning while you glared at him. “I told you if you got shot again, I would hit you” “But why did it had to be on the arm, babe?” he whined,

“Because maybe the pain will help you consider your decisions next time, huh, don’t you think, cause I can hit you again…” “NO, no, no, I’ll remember I promise” he said catching your hand that this time was going on full speed. You took a deep breath,

“You scared the hell out of me” “I know, I’m sorry” you talked sweetly at each other while Jay kissed the back of your hand. You leaned in placing your hand on his cheek to look into his eyes, then you exchange a caring kiss to which he smile in,

“Hey just making sure he’s alive, it got quiet…so, I don’t have to resuscitate you, huh?” Will’s voice made you pull back making you giggle, and Jay make a mocking face towards his brother.

“You have to stop being wheeled in here man. Your gonna kill us one day” Will continued,

“Got to keep you on your toes somehow…” Jay smirk towards Will missing the -are you kidding me- look you send his way,

“Its like you wanna be punched again!” “N-no, no babe, oh shit Will!” Jay screamed jumping out of the hospital bed hiding behind his brother who just laughed at the both of you,

“Okay, lets settle down you two, Y/N, I promise next time I’ll let you hit him a couple of times. You know so that it gets on his thick skull” Will sassed, wiggling his eyebrows up and down, while you smirked.

“I love how my dear brother and the love of my life plot to abuse me. Its hilarious…” Jay said sarcastically before sitting back down, then the door opened again showing Hailey with a worried expression,

“Did she kill him yet?” she said smirking at Jay

“Ha, Ha laugh it up” Jay said rolling his eyes. “Almost did…” that made everyone laugh, you looked at Jay and he winked at you mouthing “I love you” to which you smiled and mouth “I love you too” back.

[angelasscribbles]

Unbothered Chapter 3: Back to Unbothered

Series: Unbothered

Fandom: The Royal Romance

Pairings for series: Riley x Drake, Liam x Madeleine, Liam x Riley

Rating: MA

Warnings for this chapter: Mature Themes

A/N: This concludes all my ideas for this little miniseries. Though, I am always open for asks, questions and suggestions. At this point, it's a three shot (was supposed to be a one shot lol)

Word Count: 1,036

“Where’s Kiara?” Madeline had gotten used to seeing her at dinner, she enjoyed having someone to talk to that wasn’t Riley or Drake or even Liam. Her husband was perfectly fine when they were discussing matters of governance, but when he was around that American harlot, he acted like a teenager in love, and it annoyed the hell out of her.

“Oh, she moved out.” Drake answered.

“Why? What about the baby? I thought you guys were going to coparent?”

“Turns out, it wasn’t mine after all. She was further along than she originally thought so it couldn’t be mine. She moved to Terrana to be with the father, Gordon somebody….”

“Wait. Gordon Price? Their prime minister?”

“Yeah, that sounds right. The wedding is next year, she sent me an invitation.”

Riley and Liam entered the dining room together, her arm looped through his, giggling. Madeleine rolled her eyes. Drake smiled at both of them, “How was the press conference?”

“Fine, just general updates on the health of the baby.” Liam answered.

Cordonia was ecstatic about the little apple in Riley’s womb, the shock that it was the king’s mistress and not his wife that was pregnant blew over in two days. The public was one hundred percent on board and invested in every minute detail from morning sickness to pram choices. Leaked sonogram photos had sold for a ridiculous sixteen million dollars. No one knew who had leaked them. Riley suspected Drake but since she had access to all his accounts, she didn’t care. Not that it mattered, since Liam transferred a stupid amount of money into her personal account monthly. For the baby.

Riley and Madeleine had been photographed lunching together. It was better to present a united front the press secretary had told them.

“I trust everything is well with the baby?” The queen inquired.

It had bothered Madeleine at first. But she really wanted nothing to do with her husband sexually and she’d never really been interested in motherhood. Riley providing the heir freed her up to focus on the truly important issues pertaining to governance. Of course, her father was displeased, but since her ascension to the throne, she had stopped caring what her father thought and felt. She wondered if he was aware of the irony that the very thing he had forced her to seek was the thing that had ended his iron clad control over her life.

Liam might not be in love with her, or she with him, but he had stood up to her father, telling him in no uncertain terms that the queen of Cordonia answers to no one but the king and that father in law or not, he could and would be banished from court if didn’t cease and desist his constant harassment. As Madeleine grew into the role of queen, she found that she possessed a strength and confidence of her own. She had stopped taking her parents calls.

“Yes, everything is wonderful!” Liam beamed down at Riley as he answered Madeleine.

Liam was finally happy. Madeleine was a good queen; he had done his duty to Cordonia and still been able to keep the woman he loved under his roof and in his bed. Her marriage to Drake was a minor detail. He couldn’t blame her for marrying another man after he’d married another woman. He had been heartbroken, thinking he’d lost her, right up until that night in Vegas. Once he’d realized she still had feelings for him, he had pressed that advantage until she agreed to move into the palace.

Liam continued, “The baby is right on track developmentally and Riley is over the morning sickness! Right, love?”

Riley patted his arm, “That’s right, my king.”

Madeleine slid her eyes over to Drake, but he was busy shoveling food onto his plate, oblivious. He looked up at Riley and said, “I had them make the chicken parmesan you like, babe.”

She rewarded him with a brilliant smile. “Thank you! You’re a good husband, I’m so lucky!” She told him as she took her seat next to him. He was always doing little things like that for her. She was lucky.

“No, I’m the lucky one!” He told her, “I still can’t believe you married me!”

“Oh my God!” Madeleine exploded, “She’s carrying another man’s child! And he flirts with her constantly right under your nose! Are you really this clueless?”

Drake shrugged as he reached for his glass, “I’m not clueless about anything, Madi, but she loves me. That’s all I care about.”

“I heard you tell her that you couldn’t keep living here if Liam kept flirting with her!”

He took a long drink of his iced tea, then returned the glass to the table with a thunk, “I changed my mind.”

“Why? How?”

“Oh, ah, Maxwell introduced me to something called hot wifing and turns out, I’m into it.”

“Hot whating now?”

Riley answered, “It’s when a man gets turned on by the idea of his wife with another man. So, he allows her to sleep with other men while he remains faithful to her.”

Madeleine’s eyes widened as she looked at Drake, “And Maxwell introduced you to this?”

“Yeah.” Drake said as he scooped more food into his mouth.

“Wait.” Liam dropped the roll he was buttering onto his plate, “You’re not sleeping with Max, are you?”

“Of course not.” Riley looked at Drake and shook her head slightly.

“Yeah, right, no.” Drake agreed.

Riley took his hand and squeezed it under the table. He smiled back at her. He was ready for dinner to be over. He was going to watch her with Liam tonight. He was excited.

Riley changed the subject, “Madeleine, do you remember Liam’s cousin, Cassie?”

Madeleine froze as panic and desire flared through her. She tried to maintain her composure, “Yes….why?”

“Oh, I’ve invited her to come visit. I hope you don’t mind. She said she’s looking forward to seeing you again.” Riley smiled knowingly at the queen. Someone needed to loosen Madeleine up and Cassie was just the person to do it.

With any luck, Madeleine would soon be as unbothered and as happy as the rest of them were.

[alpaca-clouds]

Fluffcember Day 06: Unbending

My prompt for today was Gingerbread House.

Fandom: The Legend of Korra

Shipping: Kya/Lin

Genre: Fluff with some worldbuilding

Length: 1405 words

[Ao3 Link]

“Tell me the story again,” Rohan demanded, as he was sitting on Lin's lap.

Really, Lin knew why she had never had children. Well, alright, thinking that way was lying to herself. She had never had children, because she had never been in a relationship for long enough for marriage or children to happen. But really, babysitting Tenzin's kids made sure she was not regretting it.

“I've already told you two times,” she said and could not help a sigh.

“But I like the story!” The 6-year-old looked at her from bright eyes. A pleading look, reminding her of Naga's best polarbeardog eyes.

She sighed again, before somehow continuing the task of putting icing on the ginger-bread side. “After the war between the three tribes had ended, there was a big celebration…”

“No, no, no!” Rohan protested. “From the very beginning.”

How often could he listen to the same old story? A story so old, that it really was hard to say how much of it was history and how much was myth. Was it one or the other? “A long time ago, the world was not as we know it today. While most Earthbenders lived on Zhongua, there was no Earth Kingdom yet. For sure, there had been many rulers who had tried to unite the Earthbenders in one nation, but each and everyone of them had failed. At this time the continent of Zhongua had been divided between three mighty tribes. The Diqui Ren to the North, the Yenchen in the East and the Arunima in the South West of it all. Legends told that on the islands in the South there once had been another tribe, but all contact had been lost, until one day Yammenchen appeared. A young and powerful Earthbender, who said he was the prince of the Yenchen tribe. He had come, he said, to unite the different tribes and join them together in peace. At the same time, though, the newest Avatar had been born to the Arunima tribe, a cousin of their king and loyal to the family name…" She really did not understand how the boy was so interested in the history of a nation not his own. But, she figured, Tenzin would probably tell him about airbender history at every waking moment. She had to smile weakly, as she thought of that.

“The story went that after many trials and tribulations the young prince Yammenchen and Avatar Chandran had become brothers in blood and had joined forces, to quell the wars of the kingdoms and unite the Earthbenders under one banner. The birth of the Earth Kingdom, still celebrated to this day two weeks before the winter solstice.

“After the war had ended,” she once more came to the finale of the story, “Avatar Yammenchen, King Chandran and his three advisors build a hall for the tribes to exchange their wisdom and knowledge. A monument to their new found peace. The Great Jia, its beams made out of Arunima wood, the stones sources from the great Diqui quarry and the roof tiles crafted by the tile makers from Yenchen. It should be a monument to unite the new nation.” Incidentallly she finished to put the last tile onto the gingerbread monument, that was supposed to be a recreation of the legendary one.

“And what happened to it?” Rohan asked, as if she had not told him before.

“The Fire Nation destroyed it,” Kya said, making Lin almost jump.

Since when had Kya even been here? A blush burned on Lin's cheeks as she looked to the woman. A blush that really was not befitting the chief of Republic City police. But it could not be helped, after last night.

Rohan looked at the sweet recreation, that frankly did not look quite sturdy. “The Fire Nation really were the bad guys, weren't they?”

“In the 100 years war they were, yes,” Lin said. “But you have to see that the Earth Kingdom had been conquering other nations in the past as well. Or had at least tried to.” Most of the history of their world could be divided in either the Fire Nation or the Earth Kingdom on attack – or in phases where both nations had internal conflicts.

Those eternal conflicts of course had been something to happen to the Water Tribes as well – but at least they had never dragged the rest of the world into it. Well, at least not until Unaluq.

She sighed once more, just before Kya sat down next to her, with the boy quickly switching to the lap of her favorite aunt.

“You really like stories, don't you?” Kya said, leading to a somewhat blank stare.

“Everyone likes stories.”

“I remember your older siblings not being that engaged with them,” Kya said with a smile. “Do you want to study history someday?”

At this the young boy frowned. “Why would I do that?”

Lin could not help a chuckle. “I think he has some years left to decide on that.”

Kya looked at her. “Probably.”

Quickly Lin lowered her gaze, not being able to look into Kya's eyes. Stupid, really. But… Well…

And as if the world had been plotting against her, Pema used just this moment to enter the room. “Dinner is ready,” she announced, with Rohan quickly jumping up. “Yeah!”

Pema looked at the gingerbread monument. “It looks… good.”

The little pause made Lin frown. Really, she was not the most artistic person to graze the world, but it was not looking that bad. Sure, the roof was a bit crooked, but…

Rohan was already with his mother, as Lin wanted to get up as well. But without a word to her, Kya tugged her shirt, before looking at her sister-in-law. “We'll be there shortly.”

Great. Lin knew what that was supposed to mean: Kya wanted to talk.

The last evening had been nothing more than a drunken stupidity. When the airbender kids had been to bed, the adults had reminisced about the old times. Lin had drunken some good rice wine – maybe a bit too much. And after accompanying Kya outside… Things had happened. Things that would not have happened, if she had been sober. Not that it could be changed now.

“Lin,” Kya said, at least being the first one to speak.

“Look, I was drunk, okay?” Lin muttered.

Kya frowned. “Should I take that as an insult?”

This one took Lin aback. “What?”

“Well, what you are saying is, that you would not have slept with me, if you had been sober. That sounds like an insult.”

Lin groaned, even though a part of her knew that Kya was just messing with her. “What I am saying is that I would've not slept with anyone, if I had been sober. Anyone at all.”

Kya gave her a side-eye. “Your loss, really.”

With some effort Lin looked at the woman. “Could you please take this serious?”

“I am taking this serious.”

“Look, Kya, I mean…” Lin groaned again, because really, words were not her forte. “We are old.”

“So?”

“We are basically siblings.”

“Not really, though.”

“And we are…”

“Lin,” Kya interrupted her. “Yes, we are old. But that does not have to mean we are going to have to be celibate for the rest of our lives. Look, I like women. I like you, for that matter. And judging by last night, you actually do like me as well.”

“But…” Lin tried to argue with this, even though there really was no arguing about it. She had had this big crush on Kya when they had been teens – and had been too shy to do anything about that. Then her interest had shifted to Tenzin and they all knew how that had turned out. After that? Well, there had only been a few drunken mistakes. Nothing more. And now she was old. Too old to…

Kya gave a long and drawn-out sigh. “I mean it, Lin. I like you. And maybe you should stop being so…” She stopped as she was trying to find the right word. “… unbending.”

“I am an Earthbender, being unbending is kinda our thing,” Lin muttered, even though it was a weak excuse.

“And I am just saying,” Lin replied. “Maybe you want to change things up for a little. And give good things a chance to happen.” With that she pursed her lips and got up. “Think about it, yeah?”

[omegawizardposting]

This focus young LGBT+ folk have on their identity being completely unique from everyone else's is so dangerous. It only serves to isolate them from people with similar experiences at a time when we should be finding common ground and uniting against the people who want us dead.

"I'm not gay! Sure, I'm exclusively attracted to the same gender, but only if they wear glasses!" You aren't glasses-sexual. You're a gay person who thinks glasses are attractive.

"I'm not a man! Yeah, I want to go on testosterone and have surgeries to make me look like a man, but my gender is soft and cute!" You aren't cutegender. You're a trans guy with an aesthetic.

I see kids arguing over who can and can't use the genders/sexualities they've "coined", and it drives me up the wall. I cannot fathom how they don't see why that's fucked up and insane. They're quite literally treating gender and sexuality like a fandom. Meanwhile, a trans man could be raped, impregnated, and forced to detransition for the rapist's child's safety. Roe v. Wade has been overturned, and our lives are in danger. We still cannot piss in public restrooms, for Christ's sake.

This is serious. I wish it wasn't. I wish gender and sexuality were fun little accessories we could all put on and take off at our leisure. That's just not the case, though, and people are dying. People will die. You need to stop obsessing over what makes you different from the boring, regular queers and start recognizing what makes us the same.

No label describes every facet of your gender and sexuality. That's not what they're for. They're meant to bring us together under one banner. They're meant to relate us to one another. They take a common experience, like same-gender attraction, and gather all those who have it under the same roof because, on some level, we can understand each other. There is safety in numbers.

The minutia of your attraction and gender do not matter. They are so fucking unimportant. I promise you, no one cares if you only like guys with white hair and 300 IQ. What we care about is community, and your constant attempts to distance yourself from us and our experiences does none of us any favors.

We need you. You need us. You are us. So fight with us.

[bangbaby]

##소리꾼 (THUNDEROUS) !

ALBUM: NOEASY

COMEBACK RELEASE: AUGUST 23RD 2021

TRACK: 소리꾼 (THUNDEROUS)

i’m not sorry, i’m dirty . . .

SKZ: villains make our blood boil !

audio moodboard by kiki ! [ vocals by meloneye ]

— 악당 무리에 뜨거운 피가 돌아 온몸에 번져 !

FORMAT: dot point

PAIRING/S: lucy and the boys ( skz )

GENRE: idol, fluff

WORD COUNT: 1.8k

WARNINGS: implied romance, alpha female energy, mentions of chan’s abs and ass

##PRODUCTION !

first things first, noeasy is lucy’s era. well, it’s everyone’s era but it’s the comeback where she’s got the most lines.

you would think being a main lyricist would cut her some slack but nope, management was always adamant that the group had to increase/maintain their popularity before lucy could get a chance to “shine”.

jokes on them though, because where would they be without lucy’s clout?

and now, they’re million unit sellers.

legends say taylor swift’s the man was actually written for lucy kang.

after kingdom, there was absolutely no way she was hiding from the spotlight ever again. the nation knows she’s not just the token female member, she’s a monster born and created: a triple threat alpha ready to devour.

too noisy? too bad.

no more background harmonies/vocals or a couple of pity lines— this girl’s finally getting verses and dedicated solo shots.

also, dance formations/symmetry be dammed. the girl fits seamlessly no matter where she’s placed, mostly thanks to her A CLASS stylists.

and to hell with “male” choreography— you’ve never seen a girl look so good spitting on her palms, ready to throw hands.

notable lines written by lucy and changbin:

there’s no way they can lower my ego, i stick to my principles

i don't care how they look at me, i’ll always say what i have to say

everybody's talking nonsense— tired of this and that, shaking my head

you talk too much, stop meddling

i was born crooked, my voice can go against a hundred

if i don't like something, i’ll talk back until i’m satisfied

notable lines written by lucy and han:

villains make my blood boil and circulate throughout my body

why you mad? why you sad? why you tick—tick—ticked off?

your attempt to look cool is cute

you don't even come close to me, this is my show

notable lines written by chan for lucy:

man, i’m not sorry i’m dirty

freezing cold but i know we’ll burn forever

keep on talking, we don’t play by the rules

##M/V & STAGE !

short cut of a nine-tailed lucy playing with dokkaebi flames (possibly animated).

body rolls from the crop top duo, ie. the chabs (chan’s abs) and the jelly belly (lucy’s pierced navel) would without a doubt break the internet.

same goes for the dragon twins’ (hyunjin and lucy’s) dance solos.

MAN, I’M NOT SORRY I’M DIRTY.

the amount of attitude in that one line is enough to take the entire fandom for months.

lucy owns the most wicked smirk ever caught on camera as she basically tells the entire world, yeah— i do sleep under the same roof as eight hot dudes. get over it.

really, this is lucy’s world and we’re all just living in it.

if yeji can do her crazy mafia squat, lucy can absolutely do the thunderous squat.

the finger-wiggling-neck gesture was one of lucy’s contributions to the choreography— it was initially a slicing sound effect/motion; but chan and lucy decided to convert it to something a little more friendly.

the “riding” choreography instead imitates a litter, lucy is back to back with changbin and her hands form the shape of a crown. chan, han and minho support the two (as their carriage) whilst hyunjin/jeongin and felix/seungmin “hold” onto the front and back.

lucy consistently makes sure she’s not hurting lee know as he piggybacks her.

lucy tries not to burst out laughing whenever she spots butt-hunter lee know from the corner of her eye.

lucy often changes the fist-bump choreography with lee know to play rock-paper-scissors.

you just know all of lucy’s ending fairies are immaculate; whether they’re in sign language or are smiley-cute/smirky-sexy— any close up of her is dangerous for the heart.

##MAKING FILM (SKZ-TALKER) !

lucy going off on a tangent about how much she loves historical/revolution concepts and mythical creature lore (with seungmin attempting to shut her up).

lucy and chan chasing each other around set to poke and/or tickle each other’s exposed midriffs.

lucy is an absolute menace on set because she can’t do anything without being remotely distracting (even if she’s being quiet).

out of all of the members, lucy gets into trouble the most. she’s often put to sleep by their managers or lured away with food and/or games.

but the kids like her company as her presence lightens the atmosphere/makes the filming process more relaxed and fun.

whenever lucy’s filming solo, it becomes a competition of who can make her react/break character first.

funnily enough, she is usually the most immersed and professional out of the members. it’s difficult to disturb a perfectionist like her at work— but not impossible.

the aussies are essentially the band’s cesco (korean anti-pest company), they’re the least afraid of bugs unless they’re massive spiders (in that case, it’s every man for themselves).

lucy giggling to talker about hand fans because they make her feel like she’s in a hair commercial.

lucy adorably showing her battle scars to talker and making up stories about each of them. i got this one from lee know’s cat and this one’s from my fist fight with seungmin! i won, by the way.

the tangerines (chan and lucy) flirting on quad bikes.

felix and lucy making mario kart references when they’re filming on bikes/in cars.

lucy gets the “chan’s-sound-of-third-person” mission whilst seungmin gets “lucy’s-sound-of-thunder”; he says his is by far the easiest and can accomplish it the second he gets within her radius. lucy groans and says hers is impossible because chan refuses to do aegyo anywhere near her.

lucy catches onto seungmin’s mission fairly quickly though, which makes for some interesting cuts of her trying to be nice whilst the kid is annoying the absolute shit out of her (they’re playing catch with a baseball and seungmin is purposely failing to catch all of her throws).

eventually she gives up and yells at him, seungmin-ah! seriously? *cue happy puppy bouncing*

chilling in the trailer with chan and jeongin, lucy refers to herself in third person but makes it a little obvious it’s part of her mission. lucy’s eating her snacks and—

i am also eating her snacks, chan laughs because he knows exactly what her mission is. third person singular, right? lucy replies with an irritated no!

chan and his teasing hwaiting! (be glad you don’t know what kind of look the girl gives him behind the camera)

later on, lucy tries to disguise her mission by interviewing changbin about what he wants to eat. he says he’s surprisingly not hungry, and chan?

i’m not craving anything in particular, the man has the audacity to laugh with his damn man titties hanging out as he immediately catches lucy for the second time.

what do you need from me? chan asks a frustrated (flustered) lucy (the bastard’s somehow getting better at flirting and changbin walks away with a satisfied smirk).

i’m just asking you— bang christopher chan, what you want to eat, and how you’re feeling!

chan starts filming lucy with his phone and jeongin walks in between the two in an attempt to widen the gap between them/ease the tension (to no avail).

but what will you do for me? (if chan were to help lucy with her mission).

lucy swears she didn’t just get the chills from his question, the air at 2:00am is just cooler than usual.

i’ll be cute for you,

oh? well, you go first then.

the two grin and chuckle too playfully: their members are watching from the sidelines absolutely sure this is going to be edited out of the video.

oppa! soyeonnie wants barbecue for dinner!

chan absolutely cracks himself laughing at her terrible aegyo before he responds with: and channie is off to do his shoot now!

I HATE YOU! are the last words chan records before he runs off cackling like a madman.

lucy laughs/pokes fun at the kids a lot whenever any of them forget their cues; but on the extremely rare occasion she forgets— the members never let her live it down.

jeongin and lucy pretending the smoke effects are each other’s fart clouds.

bingsu! lucy loves her bingsu! thank you 2PM!

lucy also loves taking cute photos of the kids whenever they’re smiling and/or eating— especially of her sunshine, felix.

chan and lucy spray tagging the wall: the two like using “K9”, because wolves and nine kids.

it’s not a myth, lucy literally eats cds before stages— 42 episodes of skz-talker = hard evidence.

and it’s definitely not a skz-talker without lucy and han bursting into song out of nowhere/lucy and changbin competing who can do their vocal warmups the loudest.

wolfgang stage included because why not: though the thought of girls growling/female werewolves might trigger something deep within me (like it definitely would chan, aha)

first verse with lucy and changbin:

focus—

yeah, you better be afraid if you hear us

shut your mouth, fix your posture when you see us

a hunter, but you’re weak

i’m showing no mercy

i’ll bite your throat and see

how you fall when you bleed

second verse with hyunjin, lucy and han:

now, we’re on the hunt

a pack, we’re gonna run

laughing at all the ruins from the battles we have won

wolfgang, yes sir

mission for your successor

we win when we’re together

so drop your head and kneel beneath the wolf i have become

(translated lyrics from lex’s cover)

skz-talker, aka time for “what’s in lucy’s snack bag today”

lucy trusts hyunjin, minho and felix the most with taking her photos; but only very recently has she begun to let changbin and jeongin take her photos to help them improve.

their managers and/or jeongin having to wake lucy from her naps (bc they’re the only people she won’t get angry at).

the view and grow up stage also included: very pretty pastel/plant mom vibes.

lucy humming “i like the view right now” whenever she gets a good angle of chan’s ass: he has absolutely no idea why the rest of the kids are laughing so hard.

grow up is one of the hardest songs for lucy to sing. and she wrote it with the kids in mind (not initially for chan during their early trainee days that’s for sure).

you’ll always be able to tell how much self-restraint lucy is using whenever any of the kids start crying (especially from lovestay letters)— she herself has a habit of looking up to the ceiling and catching the tears before they start to fall (chan is the opposite, he looks down and avoids eye contact).

being told she’s doing well and that someone is proud of her = lucy’s ultimate weakness. thank god lee minho is usually there to make her laugh/keep her from breaking.

lucy affectionately rubs han and jeongin’s back when they’re finally off stage to soothe them. she hugs her aussie kin extremely tightly, instinctively nuzzling her head into theirs and combing the hair on the back of their necks.

a process the kids know well (first witnessed with lucy and her brothers) but only on the rare occasion receive— though when it does happen, it shows how much lucy loves and cares for them.

[ nav ] [ masterlist ] [ skz ] [ itzy ] ©bangbaby

[fangirlings-things]

Goodbye [2/2]

➤ PART. 1

Fandom: Criminal Minds

Pairing: Aaron Hotchner x reader

Word count: 4.9K

Warnings: heavy angst, mentions of death

A/N: just a lot of angst (again)!!! thank you guys so much for all the positive feedback and the notes, the messages, everything was amazing so thank you so much, you guys have no idea how much it means to me to see you enjoy my writing!! I hope you guys like this final piece, as usual, let me know your thoughts 💖

GIF IS NOT MINE || TAG LIST CRIMINAL MINDS: @imaginesofyourfandom ; @locke-writes ; @regalbanshee || GOODBYE TAG LIST: @amordesiempre01 ; @hiiwouldlikesomesleepplease ; @clairedragonessbaker ; @crazyshannonigans ; @ohhersheybars ; @messyhairday-me ; @joyofbebbanburg ; @horriblyquirkyasthmatic ; @basssalvatore2 ; @mac99martin ; @auds24 ; @captainhyenafan ; @uwu-sebastianstan ; @xoprincessmel ; @detective-time-lady ; @haylaansmi ; @tclaerh ; @spencie-reid1864 ; @dreamy-moments

In. Out. In. Out.

Hotch had been trying to control his breathing by thinking about those words. Over and over again, non-stopping. The air seemed tinier, yet heavier. Too dense. Sitting at the passenger seat of an SUV, he looked out through the window to the fields that seemed to be passing by. Rossi was driving too fast, but Hotch wanted him to slow down. He did not want to get to their destiny. Had no intention of doing so.

The countryside of Oklahoma City was illuminated by the sunlight of the middle of the afternoon. Farm houses could be seen here and there, with people walking around, doing their jobs. Animals ate and walked around their owners lands. The world was in place, still spinning, and that felt wrong to Hotch. Extremely wrong. You were gone, the world was supposed to be a horrible place. Things couldn’t just go on like nothing had happened. It couldn’t.

He had accepted that when the line went silent before. You had said your goodbye. You were gone. He had lost you. After the rest of the team had left that room, to probably continue to work to take their minds elsewhere, he stayed there, unable to move. He stared to that phone, and a voice in his head said nothing would ever be the same again. He had survived through Hailey. Could he survive through this? Losing you? He doubted it. He really did.

He just wanted silence and to be alone. To mourn you unstoppably like he new you would not approve, but still, he had to. But then David had entered the room again and said that Garcia had something. And even though Hotch had said he wasn’t interested in knowing whatever it was, David told him anyway. He said that when she left the room, she tried to triangulate the source of the call and was able to narrow down the location to a certain region. From there, Emily helped her with the profile that had been built and Reid added it to his geographical profile. Turns out, they could find the origin of the call. The place where you were. Where you had been, at least.

Hotch had told them that he did not want to go. He did not want to go and see your dead body laying around, disposed like he had seen so many other victims before. To see it… he couldn’t. He told the others to go, to arrest the unsub, he did not care. Because even though he did promise you that he would catch the man, he couldn't do it then. He wanted nothing but you back, but that he couldn’t have. And that thought destroyed him.

He had been dragged to the car anyway, Morgan literally pulled him by the arm all the way out of the station. ‘(Y/N) made you promise to catch this guy and you did. Now you go and keep that promise' he had said firmly, and that phrase made Hotch’s chest ache even more than it already did.

As the fields continued to pass, he thought about all you had done together on the past few weeks. You had taken Jack to a park and made a picnic. He had found you asleep in his office and covered you with a blanket he had laid around from one of his to-go bags. You had shared a rushed meal on your way to the airport, just a couple of burgers and soda. You had placed fries in his mouth while he was driving and you both had laughed hard on that day.

“Aaron” his name was spoken just by his side. It brought him back to the hateful reality. He sighted heavily. Live in memories had never felt so good. Turning to his side, he saw that David was looking at him with a careful expression on his face. “We are here”

Those words took a few seconds to make sense. At first he just frowned, but then realization came and his eyes snapped through the window and he saw it. A barn, right next to a small farm house. Both looked old and abandoned, the field around had clearly not been taken care of for a long time now. It was there. You were there. Your body, that being.

He got out of the car before David could say anything else. Before he himself even realized what he was doing. His hand just opened the door of the SUV and his legs were set into motion, taking him out of the vehicle and advancing several steps in the direction of those two constructions. He felt like something was pulling him in that direction, even though he felt the urge to actually run in the opposite direction. Would he be able to ever forget the sight of your body if he found it?

“Hotch! Wait” one of the car’s doors was slammed behind him and then Morgan came running towards him and stopped at his front, putting a hand on his FBI vest to make him stop from going forward. “The unsub is probably armed. You can’t go in there like this”

“Right” he mumbled to himself, lowering his eyes to his waist where he always carried his gun. He took it in his hands, feeling the weight of it like he always did. His voice sounded strange, even to himself. It carried nothing. It was the sound a ghost would make if he could be heard. He did feel like a ghost, just not feeling the pass of time and seeming unaware of everything going around.

Morgan watched him carefully until Rossi, Prentiss and Reid joined them. All of them had their guns in hand and seemed more than ready to bring an end to that nightmare. Rossi was the one who took command of the situation. “Spencer and I will take the farm house. Hotch, Morgan and Prentiss, you take the barn. Be careful, okay?” Prentiss and Morgan nodded in agreement. Hotch did not do anything.

When Morgan and Prentiss moved, he moved. He followed them with calculated steps and an erratic breathing, that came from the sense of panic he was feeling growing little by little inside of him. He saw Morgan pushing the doors of the barn open. From holes in the roof, light illuminated the place that once might have been dark even during the day. He saw Prentiss pointing her gun around as she looked for anything suspicious or a movement of any nature. He walked along with them, pointing the gun randomly, mind fogged and confused. Morgan took the front. Prentiss the right. He went left, to the corners, and that’s when he saw. You.

The first thing he noticed was that you were wearing your dark blue jeans. He hadn’t noticed that before, when you had gone out to follow a lead, but now he did. You were laying on the cold ground, hair spreaded around in a mess that used to be in his pillows by the morning. Your white tank top was a complete mess, teared apart in the belly, where you had been stabbed at least three times. Blood. Blood everywhere. Your face was turned away from him.

He fell to his knees, just realizing such thing when the impact seemed to crawl all the way up to his brain. The tears he thought had ended, came back as if to prove a point to him and instantly started to fall down. Always falling down. He wanted to look away. He need to look away. But how could he do so? You were just laying there. Left behind like some broken object. You had without a doubt been treated as such by the unsub. He wanted to scream. He wanted to sob. But quickly he realized he couldn’t emit any sound. Wasn’t able to.

“Prentiss! Here!” Hotch heard Morgan scream suddenly and he watched as the agent ran towards your body and threw himself to his knees to grab your dead body and bring it towards him. “Dammit, (Y/N)” he said, in the verge of tears.

Hotch finally fell completely down and placed his arms on his knees, then leaned his head down on it. He stared at the could ground and cried. And cried. And cried some more.

“Oh my God” Prentiss said from a few feet away, then she ran towards Morgan and also leaned down, from the sounds Hotch heard. Silence filled the barn as the three of them tried to accept reality. Emily was crying hard when suddenly, she spoke again. “What?”

“(Y/N) has a pulse” Morgan said, his voice seeming to come from far, far away. It was unsure, did not have any confidence. But then after a few more seconds of silence, his voice grew louder. “Emily, it’s a pulse! Get Rossi and Reid here!”

Hotch heard with a confused mind as Prentiss ran away towards the entrance of the barn and shouted for the other two agents. Her voice echoed through the fields. As it did, Hotch raised his head slowly and looked back to where you were. Morgan held your body loosely against his chest, an exasperated expression on his features. His eyes were fixed on the leader of the unit. “Hotch, (Y/N) has a pulse!” as the words seemed to have no effect on the other, he became more desperate. “Hotch, (Y/N)'s alive! Alive, Hotch!”

Hotch got up to his feet and walked towards your body and Morgan, stopping himself from believing that. From having hope. Once close he went down on his knees again and from up close, he saw your face. Eyes closed, blood in the corners of your mouth. The mouth he had kissed so many times. The face he caressed with his fingertips whenever he could.

“Here, Hotch, give me your hand” Morgan demanded and before the other could even do so, he grabbed Hotch’s hand and pressed it to your neck. Your skin was cold. It frightened him. He was about to move his hand away when he felt it. Just a little pumping under his finger. A pulse.

“Alive” he mumbled to himself, trying to set his mind straight. Trying to come to terms with the fact that you weren’t gone. You could still be saved.

“Yes, Hotch, alive!” Morgan smiled out of pure joy as he passed your body into Hotch’s arms and quickly took off his vest and then shirt. With a lot of skill he wrapped the clothing around your bleeding stomach, doing the best he could to prevent the bleeding from keep happening. “We have to get to an hospital”

It was as if Hotch had just been struck by a lightning. He felt filled with an odd energy, that set him into motion in an instant and made him get up with you wrapped in his arms carefully. He ran out of the barn as fast as he could without wanting to hurt you more, passing by Rossi and Reid on the way. “To the car. Now! We have to go!” the firmness in his voice, going back to how it usually was, made the others move as well.

He got in the back of the SUV with you still in his arms. Reid got to the passenger’s seat and Morgan got the wheel and set the car in movement as fast as he could. Rossi and Prentiss took the other vehicle. “Garcia!” Reid’s voice was loud and filled with urgency. “I need you to give me directions to the closest hospital to where we are. Now!” a few silent seconds. “(Y/N) has a pulse”

Hotch had his eyes sat on your face as all of that happened, fingertips running through your face and hair as he fought back more tears. Hope. He had to grab himself to hope right now that it was possible. Your breathing was barely there, chest almost not moving at all. But it was still there.

Still there.

━━━━━━━━━━ × ━━━━━━━━━━

“What about the unsub?” J.J asked the others, with her arms crossed over her chest and a heavy look on her face. Just the mention of that man disgusted her.

Hotch sat at one of the hospital's reception chairs, elbows on his knees and eyes on the too clean floor. So different from the barn's. Hours had passed since he had stormed into the E.R with you in his arms. Hours had passed since you had been taken to surgery and disappeared through many doors with doctors all around you. He hadn’t had news since. Any. At all. So all he did was sit there and wait, hoping, praying, wishing and listening to the others talking, without saying anything.

“I found him” Morgan, who now wore a shirt Garcia had brought to him on her way there, said, and Hotch could feel his stare upon himself from the corner of his eye. Even though he was not looking at them, he did pay some attention to that part of the conversation. Honestly, the unsub had not even crossed his mind until J.J mentioned him. All his focus was on you. “He was dead. Shot in the stomach. Bled out. For the way there was a gun left a few feet away from his body, my guess is that (Y/N) managed to shot him before or after being stabbed. He tried to leave by the back exit of the barn, but didn’t make it”

“Good” Reid said with conviction, getting nods of agreement from both David and J.J. He had his hands on the front pockets of his pants and his eyes kept on going to the door through where doctors had been coming to notify other people about their loved ones. He was impatient. Everyone was.

“(Y/N)'s a fighter” Prentiss said in a proud tone. She had been unable to keep a smile away from her lips from the very moment Morgan had said you had a pulse. Even though she was still worried if you would pull through, she was hopeful. Maybe too hopeful, but no one could blame her right then.

“Hey” the proximity of the voice made Hotch raise his eyes, only to be met by J.J's sight standing by his side, lips squeezed in a thin line and hair tugged behind her ears. She sat at the empty chair beside his and joined her hands over her lap. “How are you holding up?”

“I’m not” Hotch pressed his palms together, sighting heavily. They were sweaty, shaking quite a bit. He squeezed them, trying to stop that from happening. “J.J, what if…”

“Stop” the blonde cut him short, so firmly that he fixed his eyes on her in surprise. She was determined, like she usually was when she decided the case they would be working on nextly. “Don’t go there. Don’t torture yourself like that. (Y/N) is going to pull through”

“Are you sure about it?” the question was made weakly, tone just above a whisper. Maybe not even to her. It was more like a unstoppable thought that he desperately wanted to shake away.

J.J opened her mouth to try to formulate an answer but before she could the doors Reid kept on watching were opened and a doctor in scrubs passed through them. He looked around the reception and then fixed his eyes on the FBI team. He started walking towards them.

Hotch got to his feet and started to walk forward, to meet the doctor halfway. The doctor sat his eyes on his face. Even though Hotch was a profiler, in that moment he had no clue what that man was going to say to him.

It scared the hell out of him.

━━━━━━━━━━ × ━━━━━━━━━━

You opened your eyes slowly, to then quickly shut them again. The light. It hurt. It was too bright. You tried to take a deep breath. It also hurt. You set your breathing into shallow ones, those you could handle for now. After several moments, you tried to open your eyes again, right eye before the left one. ‘Baby steps', you thought to yourself, mind a bit fogged and confused.

It took some time, but then the place you were in started to get into focus. The walls were extremely white. You were laying in something soft. Soft. So different from the barn. The barn… suddenly the pain you were feeling made sense. You had been stabbed. Did you die? Had that been it? Falling into unconsciousness and everything just stopped? Just like that?

“(Y/N)?” the voice was so sudden it scared you. Made your eyes snap to your left side and then you saw him. Sitting at a chair, elbows resting on the bed you were on. His face was close, eyes incredibly red making it clear that he had been crying. Short hair a bit messy, so unlike the usual organization he always valued. “(Y/N)?”

“A-Aaron?” your voice sounded shaky, deep. Your throat was very dry, and you could feel it burning a bit, as if you had just taken a shot of whiskey. Oh, you could really use one of those.

He smiled, chuckling a bit as his eyes got filled with tears. He fought with them for a second, trying to hold them back. “I’m here, babe. I’m right here” one of his hands travelled to the top of your head and he kept it softly there, stroking the strands of your hair gently.

“How…?” the question died in your dry throat, as you frowned, looking for a possible answer. A thought occurred to you and it made you stare at him in fear. “Hotch, if you died too, I’m going to be really pissed”

He chuckled a bit. God, that did sound exactly like something you would say. Even haven just gotten out of a major risk surgery. “I’m not dead. Neither are you” he saw the relief in your features and smiled. He thought about the fact that he probably had never given someone a smile as pure as that one. How he was feeling… he couldn’t even begin to describe it.

“B-but the call… the barn…” you began, because that did not make sense at all. You remembered perfectly making that call, saying your goodbyes to him and the team. How could you have survived that, when you had already admitted to have been beaten?

“Garcia triangulated the call. She narrowed the location. Reid used his geographical profile and the others crossed references with men with criminal records in the area” the words just slipped across his lips, one after the other. Now that he knew you were okay, he stopped to think about how great had been the other’s work. If they hadn’t done that… well, he tried to push away that terrible thought. “They found your location. They found you”

“They?” you echoed his saying, confused by the choice of words. Usually, there wasn’t a 'we' in that team. It was a 'we'. And 'we' only.

Hotch swallowed dry at the questioning. He averted his eyes from yours and being a profiler, you recognized that body language. He was embarrassed. Feeling guilty. “After your call, I… I lost my ground. I froze” he squeezed his lips on a thin line. “They did everything on their own, I helped with nothing. In the barn, when we found your b-body” he struggled with the word for a bit. “Derek was the one who approached you and noticed you had a pulse. I had given up hope. All I did was sit down and cry” he sighted heavily, obviously trying not to cry right then and there. “I’m so sorry, (Y/N). I should have reacted. I shouldn’t have sent you out there in the first place, it was my fault”

“Aaron” you slowly managed to move your hand enough to grab his, that still stood in the bed. Your touch on his skin finally made his gaze travel back to your face. You felt that usual spark of excitement when your eyes met. “Nothing is your fault. You were in shock. If this happened to you, I would have reacted in the exact same way. So, please, don’t go there” he nodded in agreement, but you could see that he would struggle with the matter still. For how much you knew him, you guessed that for quite a long time. However, you would be there for him. As you thought everything that had happened, you suddenly got agitated. “What about the unsub? Did you get him?”

“You were the one who got him, babe” Hotch said, and his words made more memories come into place. The stabbing. The fact that when that man was about to pull away from your bloodied body, you grabbed his gun and managed to shoot him. Just a single press to the trigger, that took all the strength you still had. You could still hear that awful sound ringing inside your head.

“I shot him” you said, and he nodded in confirmation.

“He tried to run, but I suppose you got one of his main organs. He died right there, a few feet away from where you were” he told, Morgan’s speech from earlier becoming quite useful. In that moment, he was grateful for having paid attention at all.

You had killed him. You did that. You won. “Good” was the only thing you said, and he chuckled. You smiled softly at him. “What?”

“Reid said the exact same thing” he said, still stroking your hair.

“Reid” you echoed the Doctor’s name, thinking about him and the others. About how much you would like to see them. In that barn, you had realized just how much you loved all of those people. People who used to be only your co-workers in the beginning of that job, but now were your family. “I-is the team here? Can I see them?”

“I’ll tell them to come in right now” Hotch kissed your forehead for a long moment, got up from his chair and disappeared through an open door in the corner of the room. Looking around the white walls and being able to hear only your own shallow breathing, you instantly wished to not have sent him out. You feared that being alone, would send you right back at that barn with nobody but that man. The unsub.

Before you could start to really panic though, Hotch got back, passing by the door. But this time, he was accompanied by the others.

“There you are” Emily was the first one to approach your bed, smiling like you had never seen her smile before. She seemed radiant, utterly happy. The fact that it was because of you, warmed your heart. “I knew you would pull through. You’re a badass” she got your hand in hers and squeezed it tightly, making you smile.

“Hey, sibling. I’m glad you’re okay” Spencer was the next one to approach you, as Emily got a spot close to one of the white walls. His saying was clearly a reference to the fact that you had said to consider him the 'brother' you never had, and that made you realize something.

“Y-you all heard that call?” you asked, looking around the room, to all of those familiar faces.

“Every single word” David confirmed your theory, a sympathetic smile on his lips. “We’re sorry for invading your privacy like that, but… honestly we couldn’t leave. And Aaron… it was better not to leave him alone in there” he looked at his side at Hotch, who had crossed his arms over his chest and was looking a the floor for a few seconds.

“I’m glad you didn’t” you said to David and your words made Hotch’s eyes raise to meet your face again. As you smiled reassuringly, he was able to smile too.

“And as for me marrying again, I’m not going to promise anything. What if I met a person who would be an wonderful ex?” Rossi said, making everyone roll their eyes and laugh. You tried to laugh, but your chest hurt too much, so you turned out to just cough a bit.

Hotch reassumed his position at the chair by your bed on that exact moment. “Don’t push too hard” his hand went back to your hair, as you agreed. ‘Baby steps', you reminded yourself.

J.J then came close, eyes filled with tears. She touched your arm gently, smiling. “I’m so glad you’re fine” she leaned down, kissed your forehead and then stepped back as you were only able to smile at her.

“I already made you three playlists” Penelope said as she was the one who now approached you, her eyes were red. She had clearly been crying very recently. You wished you could hug her. “One for your time here in the hospital, one for your recovery time at home and one for when you get back to work. I tried to include versions of Hotch singing 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' or 'Every breath you take', but he didn’t think my idea was too great, so” she shrugged, in that good humored way of hers. You fought back the urge to laugh. The others did.

“Now that, would be stuff I wish to hear” you looked over at Hotch, smiling. He mumbled 'not going to happen' in a serious, smiling way that made you bite back a laugh. You looked back at Penelope, reaching your hand out to hers. She grabbed it. “Thank you, Penelope. Thank you so much”

As she stepped back, you saw Derek standing behind her. His expression was serious, a bit sad even. As he got close, you saw that he was squeezing his lips tightly. “You do know you scared the hell out of me out there, right?” After you mumbled out a ‘sorry’, he grabbed your hand. “Now, you focus on getting better so we can have those pizza nights you talked about”

“Now that’s a plan” you said, and he nodded in agreement, face cracking up in a smile. You felt good from seeing him smile. After a few more seconds Derek stepped back too, and you looked at all of them, standing there, watching over you. “Thank you, guys. For finding me. For caring. For… for everything” you took a breath as deep as you could take, trying not to let tears fall down. “Now please, go to the hotel, rest. I know you’re all probably extremely tired”

“Actually, due to your physical work preparation, we could have more eight sleepless hours before…” Spencer said, and hearing him rambling like that again felt as music to your ears. Seeing the look in your voice though, very serious about them going to get some rest, he stopped talking.

“We will be back first thing in the morning” J.J assured, with that defining tone of hers that let you no doubt she would keep that promise.

“At the very first light” David agreed.

“Don't go out killing bad guys without us in the meantime” Emily winked at you, still smiling.

“We love you” Derek said, seriously.

“And I love you all” you said, running your eyes through all of them. Then, you watched as one by one, they left the room and then it was like it had been in the beginning, just you and Hotch. You closed your eyes for a long moment, just enjoying the feeling of his touch in your hair. When you opened them again, you met his gaze. “It’s selfish, but c-can you stay?”

Hotch stared at you as if you had just told him the most absurd thing in the world. “(Y/N), did you really think I would leave? I’m not getting out of here until you do” the sight of satisfaction you emitted could not have been held back.

“We can share the bed” you suggested, smiling.

“I’m completely fine with this chair” he kissed one of your hands, bringing it close to his lips before placing it down again, with his over yours. You saw a thought run through his features and before you could ask, he spoke his mind. “Will you marry me, (Y/N)?” you were speechless, incapable of saying anything. You thought how much your admittance on the call to having found the ring would have hurt him. “I had the ring in that drawer for months now. With the job, and everything… I was waiting for the perfect moment to ask but almost losing you like this made me realize that there is no such thing. My perfect is whenever I’m with you. And that’s what I want. I want to marry you”

Hearing that, you could no longer stop the tears. “Yes, of course I’ll marry you”

Hotch smiled, chuckling too. His eyes were filled with tears. “Good, because I was beginning to think that you had only accepted because you were in the verge of dying”

You rolled your eyes, but smiled back. “How did you guess?”

He chuckled a bit more and then kissed your forehead again, like he had done before. “I love you”

Looking at him, the man you loved, you thought about how lucky you were. To have him. To be alive. To have that team. Being so close to dying like that, made you see just how important what you did was. You put away bad people, like the man who had kidnapped you. You saved others. And to be honest, you couldn’t wait to get back on the job.

“I love you too”

[dessarious]

The Angel of Death Pt45

Inspired by this Story Starter by @someone-ev

AO3   Prologue   Beginning  Previous   Next

This was going to be a disaster. That was the only thought Tris could manage as she waited for Gina on the warehouse roof. She’d been trying to figure out a way to keep her from finding out about Talia. The Blakes she could count on not to say anything, the others… even though she hadn’t named Talia she gave them enough clues that their idle gossip would tip the woman off. There was no way she could keep it under wraps. She had to tell her.

“My fairy, I’d hoped it was you.” She’d landed silently. If Tris hadn’t been able to see the string Gina would have snuck up on her. At some point she was going to have to ask where her skills had come from.

“I’m sorry, I did not want to bring you back into my fight. But now the other’s are in danger and I need your help.” The words felt like they were being pulled from her. She didn’t ask for help, it was a sign of weakness. Gina put a hand under her chin and forced her to meet her gaze. She didn’t know what that look meant.

“No, I’m sorry. I treated you like the child I remembered rather than the skilled warrior you’ve become. I shouldn’t have tried to insert myself without asking you.” Tris just blinked at her in surprise for a moment. An apology was the last thing she’d expected. “I just want to help you in whatever way you’ll let me.”

"I need you to train the others to fight. My efforts so far have been less than successful and there’s no time to figure out a better strategy.” The words came out in a rush, almost as if she were afraid they wouldn’t come out at all if she stopped.

“What is the threat?” And there was the question she really didn’t want to answer. Given her views on Talia she might go after the woman herself. Unfortunately, there really wasn’t a way to keep it from her at this point.

“Talia is on her way to Paris, but I’m almost certain she’s going after Damian. I have no reason to believe she actually knows I’m here. I just want the other’s prepared in case the worst happens.” She got it all out in a rush and practically held her breath waiting for a response.

“I thought you said Damian was dead.” There was a hard edge to her voice and Tris had a feeling the woman knew all about the Lazarus Pits. Well, one less thing to explain.

“He was. I didn’t get all the details but I’m fairly confident Talia at least ordered his death. I’m not certain who revived him or how, though I have my theories.” Gina was searching her face for something, but she had no idea what.

“You’ve seen him?” Tris just nodded. “And what about your string?” Oh, that explained the concerned expression.

“The string isn’t red and shows no sign of returning to it.”

“And how do you feel about that?” Tris just blinked at her in confusion.

“It’s for the best and means fewer complications. Damian said it was the universe correcting a mistake, and I can’t say I disagree. Given our history, any further contact is likely to just create strife.” Gina let out a sigh.

“Perhaps you should keep an open mind about that. Strings exist for a reason. In time things may change. You deserve to be happy and I don’t want to see you cut off any possible avenues, no matter how unlikely they seem at the moment.” Tris nodded. There was nothing she could say or do to change the woman’s mind, and the last thing she wanted was to get into an argument instead of focusing on getting the others trained. Gina sighed again. “Of course I’ll help train your friends and keep them safe. Do you know when Talia will get here?”

“Not exactly, but given her current pace and movements within the week most likely.” From what she could tell, Talia was stopping at various safe houses, probably to pick up people or supplies. The first was more of an issue than the second in her opinion. Being overwhelmed in numbers was a far bigger risk than any tricks she could come up with.

“That doesn’t give us much time. Have they had any combat training before?”

“No, but hopefully with the Miraculous they’ll be able to stay alive. Right now I just need you to keep them from being a liability to themselves and each other. Hopefully they won’t be a part of this at all but I don’t want them killed because I was wrong. I shouldn’t have stayed here and put them in danger in the first place.” She should never have let Fu and the Kwami convince her to stay here. She should have left as soon as Chloe recognized her. She shouldn’t have gone after Damian and outed herself. She was slipping, and that was a death sentence in her world. Gina cupped her face and made her look up at her.

“This is not your fault.” Tris just shot the woman a flat look. “It’s not. You can’t be held responsible for the nut job Talia is. And Isolating yourself from the world does nothing but cause you pain. You may not remember much from before you were taken but you were always happiest around other people. You can’t honestly tell me you aren’t enjoying being with your friends, even if you hate school.” She wanted to argue but stopped herself to really think about it. Yes, she hated school and the training sessions were a nightmare but when they were all together in their dorm or she was out with some of them it was nice. She certainly enjoyed teaching Kagami about reading people.

“Perhaps but it’s selfish to put them in danger for something so fleeting. Being around me is dangerous and no one deserves to have a target on their back just because I don’t want to be alone.” Until she said it Tris didn’t really believe it, but the thought of going back to the way things were… it hurt. But what else could she do?

“Marinette.” she flinched back but her Nonna kept hold of her face and forced eye contact. “Marinette, I'm not going to let that woman keep destroying your life. Regardless of who her target is by the time this is over you will be safe and I will not leave you alone. I promise.” She forced back tears and tried to figure out what the strange feeling in her chest was. She had to think back to right after she was taken. Those first few weeks when she’d told herself that someone would come for her, or Damian would stop his mother from torturing her. She’d quickly had all the hope beaten out of her. It was pointless, dangerous even. The fact that she was feeling it again… she wasn’t certain that was a good thing.

AO3   Prologue   Beginning  Previous    Next

Ko-Fi

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[ramblingkat]

Fic: Stars

This was encouraged by the UraIchi discord server. Basic concept: Everyone is born with a tail. If you live long enough, you get more. If you find your “soul mate” you get a new color on your tail. 

Here, Yoruichi noticed the new color on Kisuke’s tail. He had happily been oblivious. And has no idea who’s reiatsu matches that new color of fur on his tail.

Fandom: Bleach

Characters: Urahara Kisuke, Shihoin Yoruichi, Ishida Ryuken, Kurosaki Masaki, Kurosaki Isshin, and Kurosaki Ichigo

***

“You have gold in your fur.”

Yoruichi’s voice, deep and raspy, was a familiar one, and he knew she’d been sitting behind him for a bit, so Kisuke didn’t jump. Though he did pause, a cup of tea against his lips. Then he lowered it again, turning some to look over his shoulder at his friend. 

She was crouched next to his tail, eyes focused on the tip. Kisuke didn't actually look at his tail all that much, with it being out of his direct line of sight. Oh, he made sure it was brushed and neat enough, but it was just another limb. As long as it worked as he wanted, he never thought about it too much. 

Now he flicked it up, bringing the tip up closer since that was where Yoruichi had been focused. 

This was the only tail on display, as humans rarely lived long enough to gain a second tail, let alone a third as Kisuke had. The other two were hidden, as they had been for almost a century of hiding in the special gigai he had created. The only one on display was the same ashy blond as his hair, a sleek fox tail that had gotten him quite a few appreciative looks. And more than a few people asking for blessings. 

Apparently, pale fox tails were a sign of favor. Not something he had expected when he had first come to the living world. 

Shinji had laughed at him, the man’s golden lion tail lashing lazily behind him. Kisuke had asked how it felt to only have to deal with one rope instead of the multitude that the older captain usually had. That had lead to a spar, and gotten Shinji distracted. 

Now, however, Kisuke saw that there were fine golden hairs growing at the end of his tail. They didn’t stand out a great deal, not yet. But they were definitely golden. A distinct change from the pale fur they grew in. 

Yoruichi’s reiatsu, as muted as it was, radiated delight. Kisuke was feeling a bit stunned himself. 

“But,” he protested, voice distant in his own ears, “I haven’t met anyone new. Not for long enough to have our energies to click enough to bond.” 

There was a flat-out chortle from Yoruichi, and she rose up onto her back legs, resting her paws against the back of his shoulder. That let her get a better look at his tail. “You found someone to soul bond to and didn’t say anything.” She sounded highly amused and no small amount of pleased. “What have you been up to?”

Kisuke snorted. “Plotting and planning. The usual.” He flicked his tail against her face, then let it relax again. “I wonder who this is. I don’t know of anyone I’ve seen recently that has that color of reiatsu.”

He reached over and poked Yoruichi’s nose as she opened her mouth. “And don’t start on SoiFon. Right shade, very much wrong person.” He smiled faintly. “She’d murder me if we ever created some sort of spiritual bond.” Kisuke paused. “Though the way she hates me would definitely qualify. But the timing is wrong.”

“She doesn’t hate you,” Yoruichi protested. Ignoring Kisuke’s amused, yet unimpressed, expression, the cat continued. “She’s just prickly about my honor.”

Kisuke snorted again, hand moving to rub his friend’s ears. “Very prickly,” he said drily. “If she could make me vanish, she would definitely do so.” He shook his head. “In any case, SoiFon’s disdain for me is not the topic here. I honestly have no idea why I would have golden fur coming in now. Everyone I interact with now are the same people I have interacted with for years. I doubt any of them have changed that much.”

“Something to figure out later,” Yoruichi agreed. “It’s not like your crimson isn’t a distinct shade.” She licked a foot, quiet for a moment. “Though now that I am here, how are things with Isshin and Masaki?”

Still absently petting her, Kisuke smiled faintly. “Going well. From everything that Ishida-san and I can tell, the baby is healthy and growing well. They are likely to have a mix of Isshin-san and Masaki-san talents.” Kisuke considered it a moment. “I believe, once the baby is born, they’ll take the hollow with them. That will be vital for their stability. They are so in balance at the moment that the loss of one aspect will likely prove lethal in the long run.” He considered that as fingers moving softly over dark fur. “Something I have impressed upon the parents to be. The hollow is sealed and will continue to be until we break it at some point, but the power it holds is present. So the baby will be…impressive.”

There was a snort from Yoruichi. “Maybe it’s the baby,” she teased, though there had not been any documented cases of soul bonding with an unborn child. “You do the impossible regularly enough. Why not do it again?”

Kisuke tweaked her ear, hand blurring as he dodged the slash of her claws. “I doubt even baby Kurosaki is developed enough to have a proper reiatsu signature yet,” he said easily. “While they have a strong presence already, it’s…malleable. Though I do hope that you’ll be in town when the time for the birth gets close.” He wrinkled his nose. “I am already noticing an uptick of smaller hollows. Masaki-san has been attracting quite a bit of attention from the wrong quarters. I think when it is time for baby Kurosaki to be born, they will lure in hollows for miles around. We’ll need to set up a protective line around them and deal with the swarm that is likely to descend on us at that level of power energy.”

A nod from Yoruichi. “Just contact me when it gets close to time. Though I don’t know if I’ll go too far.” Her tone went light and teasing. “After all, I have to find out who your mysterious suitor to be is. Only you could get a soul bond and not notice.”

That got her a sigh and a shrug. “It wasn’t like it was that big a deal,” he protested, giving his friend an over-exaggerated pout. “And I’ve been busy.”

Yoruichi perked up. “I have to talk to Tessai,” she warbled out, as close to singing as she got. Dodging Kisuke’s grab, the cat ran into the house, yowling out the name of their other friend, and Kisuke sighed.

Collecting his tea, he focused on that. No need to think about Tessai-san’s matchmaking urges now. He’d be dealing with them soon enough.

***

The stars looked amazing, and Kisuke found himself panting as he watched them decorate the night sky.

They weren’t as bright here as they were in soul society, but there was a great deal more progression in the living world, so bright it dimmed even the night sky.

Though all of his senses felt dimmed. The Kurosaki baby had come into the world, and he was grateful that Ishida had a charm that he and Masaki had put on the baby. It would allow more of the child’s reiatsu to release over the next year or so. Slow enough that they shouldn’t have a repeat of tonight. 

He was exhausted, and he was sure that Yoruichi was the same whenever she was at. 

The Visored had taken the outer layer of the patrol. Kisuke and Yoruichi had focused on the blocks around the roof of the hospital that the baby was being born in. And outside of all of it, Hachigen and Tessai had been working on keeping all of this under wraps. While he knew Aizen had an idea where they might be, they did not need the baby’s explosion of power to attract his eye. 

He was pretty sure they had dealt with every hollow from miles around, all attracted to the initial spike of power that the baby would have screamed out with their first breath.

That was something he needed to check on well. 

Pushing himself upright, Kisuke glanced around. It only took a moment to spot Yoruichi, leaning against an air conditioning unit a few roofs over. Waving to catch her attention, he waited until she nodded back, then he let himself drop over the side of the roof.

Ishida had given him a room number, and Kisuke had already scouted out where it was in the hospital. So it only took a moment to wrap a hint of reiatsu under his feet to slow and then stop his fall. He pulled a phone out and texted the man, making sure he was able to come in.

The curtains shoved apart, and Ishida was scowling at him. The man opened the window. “Get in here,” he muttered. “The sooner you make sure the boy is all right, the sooner you can leave.”

Kisuke smiled. “A boy? I am sure that Kurosaki-san is thrilled.”

“Isshin is being an idiot over it, and Masaki is pleased to have a healthy baby.” 

He shifted aside, letting Kisuke step through and land lightly on the floor, geta making only a small clicking as they hit the ground. Then Ishida continued. “They named him Ichigo. I assume you dealt with any outside trouble.”

Kisuke grimaced a bit. “After this, I think we’re all going to go find out beds now that the charm you have put into place has muted his strength. The area should be hollow free for a few months.”

A sigh. “That’s good,” the white haired Quincy said. “Hopefully they’ll be gone for even longer than that.”

Kisuke considered that. “If you like, I can set up patrol when your own child is born.” It was an honest offer, as he knew that the man’s wife had taken poorly to pregnancy. She was happy to be pregnant, but every time Kisuke saw her around, she looked exhausted and drained.

Ishida tensed, then made himself relax. “We’ll discuss that later,” he said, which made Kisuke smile to himself. That wasn’t a no, and it was nice to see how devoted the man was to his wife. He was as bad as Isshin was, if quieter about it. 

But he only nodded in response, quietly following as he was lead to the bed. 

There was Masaki, who was watching them, though Kisuke could see she was ready to go to sleep. Beside the bed was Isshin, whose tail was wagging back and forth like mad. And beside him, placed where both he and Masaki could reach, was a tiny little being. 

There was a tuft of dark hair, though he could already see strands of a paler color in it. Kisuke wondered if baby Kurosaki… Ichigo, his name was Ichigo, would have his mother’s hair? 

He was wrapped firmly in a warm blanket, swaddled quite tightly. Though he managed to get a foot and a puffy little tail out of the confines already. Kisuke smiled faintly, tucking the fluffy grey tail and the foot back into the blanket. “Already a trouble maker,” he murmured to the child, and then rested his hand on Ichigo’s chest. Closing his eyes, he focused, threading his reiatsu gently to make sure everything was still balanced. 

This was something he’d been doing since Isshin had come to tell him that Masaki was pregnant, in a near panic. There had been two pregnancies before this one, and neither had gotten far. The third time was the charm, and the balance of energies settled in ways to keep the boy from coming to harm. 

Everything still felt good, and he opened his eyes with a smile. 

“Congratulations,” he said, smiling at them. He knew they had been heartbroken the previous times, and having Ichigo here, all red-faced and scowling, had to be such a relief. 

“Masaki-san?” he asked, offering her his hand. She rested her fingers against his palm, and he did his own scan of her energies. 

Once he was done, he gave her hand a light squeeze and let go. “It’s as I thought. The hollow passed on to Ichigo, but the seal on it seems to be intact. Though he’s definitely strong enough to see spirits without much help.”

He smiled at the new parents. “You should have an easier time of things if you decide to give him any siblings without the hollow energies causing such distress on your own.” That was to Masaki, who looked relieved. He knew she had taken the failed pregnancies hard, but this should help her feel better about any future attempts. 

Moving away from the bed, Kisuke absently sealed Benihime back into a cane, nodding at each of them. “Now that everything seems to have settled both outside and in here, I’m off. Let me know if you have any other concerns that I might be able to help calm.” 

He went to perch on the sill of the window, then threw a grin back at them. “And, as always, come visit the shop and pick up a few items. I always have a wide range of stock for your purchasing pleasure.”

Ishida shoved him out the window with a snort. 

Kisuke laughed as he caught himself, and took off into the night. Time to find everyone and let them know that they could do whatever. The situation was done, and it was time for a well-deserved rest.

Besides, now that Ichigo was actually born, Kisuke had potential plans to adjust.